Bahrain, Pakistan aim for $1bn trade 

Manama : Trade relations between Bahrain and Pakistan is poised to move up with a huge momentum with the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressing his wish to boost bilateral trade by 10 fold in the next three years to $1 billion. 

This was announced during the second Pakistan-Bahrain Business Opportunities Conference held in Islamabad. Bahraini Economic Delegation to event was led Minister of Industry, Commerce & Tourism Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani.  

The meeting, while discussing the prospects of GCC-Pakistan FTA, mulled starting a Pakistani Festival in Manama next October which shall be reciprocated with a Bahraini Festival in Pakistan at a later date. Improving logistic connections, easing business visa norms were also discussed.  

The opening ceremony was attended by Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan PM, Khurruam Dastgir Khan, the Pakistan Minister of Commerce, Javed Malik, the Ambassador of Pakistan to Bahrain, other top delegates and officials from both sides. 

In his opening address, Alzayani highlighted the prospects of Bahrain’s economy including its strategic location as the gateway to the Gulf Cooperation Council nations. 

In this regard, he also highlighted the various FTAs the kingdom has signed with the USA, Singapore and EFTA States (Switzerland, Norway, Luxemburg, and Lichtenstein). 

This, according to Alzayani, also drastically reduces the operational cost of doing business in Bahrain by 30 to 40 per cent when compared to its GCC neighbours. 

Further, highlighting the resilience of the Bahrain’s economy, the minister said  Bahrain’s GDP grew at the rate of about 4.3pc in 2016, at a time when oil prices are the lowest. 

“This growth was driven mainly by the financial services, manufacturing, tourism and construction sectors,” he said. 

Highlighting Bahrain’s effort to get rid of bureaucracy and red tape, the minister said, “The introduction of our online portal for business registration “SIJILAT” has enabled us to issue online CRs in 93 seconds.”

“Our liberalisation process has left us with only 2pc of business activities restricted to Bahraini nationals, and 60pc of the remaining 98pc open to foreign investors on a 100pc basis,” the minister revealed.

On the efficiency of Bahrain’s port, the minister said Kingdom’s port enjoys “an average container clearing time of two hours.”

He also revealed that Bahrain succeeded in decreasing transit time to KSA and to the rest of GCC from 6 days to same day delivery including major cities such Riyadh & Kuwait City. The Eastern Province of KSA can be serviced within 6 hours.

The minister confirmed that “Bahrain and its economy are open to all and invite all to take advantage of Bahrain geographical location and its excellent logistics connectivity to use Bahrain as your gateway to the GCC market.”