Bahrain’s efforts in putting the kingdom on the global marketplace have been recognised at an international level.

The kingdom’s trade window – Export Bahrain - has been named the ‘Best International Deal Facilitator for Start-up Exporters’ as part of the Global Business Outlook Awards 2021. The prestigious international award is a global testament of the agency’s integral role in empowering Bahrain-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and assisting it in exploring new markets.

The recognition reflects Export Bahrain’s keen efforts to support and enable businesses in Bahrain to access new opportunities in global marketplaces.

Safa Abdulkhaliq

These efforts have resulted in facilitating over $110 million in export value for Bahrain-based SMEs during the past three years since the inception of Export Bahrain, which enabled over 27 per cent of the targeted category to tap into new markets abroad and encouraged more than 12 per cent of SME businesses supported by Export Bahrain to export their products and services for the first time.

The award is the second international honouring received by Export Bahrain this year, as the initiative was named the ‘Best company in accelerating the growth of products and services made in Bahrain’ by the Globee Golden Bridge Awards earlier this year.

Export Bahrain Acting Chief Executive Safa Abdulkhaliq said, “We are honoured to receive this notable award, which is an international acknowledgement of the progress attained by Export Bahrain.

The initiative continues to offer support to all businesses based in Bahrain, with the aim of boosting the kingdom’s exports on the regional and global levels. Export Bahrain is moving forward to achieve its strategic goals of establishing a healthy exporting ecosystem, capitalising on the kingdom’s unique location that qualifies it to become a premier export zone in the region.”

The Global Business Outlook Awards, which are exclusively presented to leading institutions around the world, acknowledge the role of Export Bahrain in facilitating exports of Bahrain-based businesses, providing them with a range of diverse solutions to meet their needs and aspiration and ensuring to enable SMEs in specific to unlock more potentials through exports.

Export Bahrain has supported SMEs based in Bahrain to export more than 51 different product and service categories across 10 economic sectors. Since its inception in November 2018, Export Bahrain has supported products and services that are made in Bahrain reach more than 56 markets across the GCC, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, the UK, and the US.

Exports up by 111pc

Meanwhile, Bahrain’s exports of national origin increased by 111 per cent to BD406 million ($1.08 billion) during November 2021, compared to BD192 million for the same month of the previous year.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked first among countries receiving Bahraini exports of national origin, importing BD62 million worth of goods from Bahrain. The US came second with BD47 million and China third with BD38 million, said the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) in its foreign trade report for November 2021.

The kingdom’s top 10 trading partners in terms of exports accounted for 74 per cent of the total value, with the remaining countries accounted for 26 per cent.

Unwrought aluminium alloys emerged as the top products exported during November 2021 with BD107 million, agglomerated iron ores and concentrates alloyed was second with a value of BD70 million and unwrought aluminium not alloyed came third with BD33million.

The value of imports increased by 13 per cent, reaching BD453 million during November 2021 compared to BD402 million for the same month of the previous year. The top 10 countries accounted for 71 per cent of the value of imports, with the remaining countries accounting for 29 per cent.

According to the report, China ranked first when it came to imports to Bahrain, with a total of BD67 million, Brazil was second with BD55 million, and UAE was third with BD36 million.

Non-agglomerated iron ores and concentrates emerged as the top product imported into Bahrain with a total value of BD63 million, while aluminium oxide was second with BD39 million and gold jewellery third with BD18 million.

The total value of re-exports increased by 7 per cent to reach BD49 million during November 2021, compared to BD46 million for the same month of the previous year. The top 10 countries accounted for 88 per cent of the re-exported value, while the remaining countries accounted for the 12 per cent. The UAE ranked first with BD13 million, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia second with BD11 million, and Singapore third with BD7 million.

Parts for airplanes was the top product re-exported from Bahrain with BD7 million, gold ingots came in second place with BD5 million, and precious metal came third with BD3 million.

As for the trade balance, which represents the difference between exports and imports, it recorded a surplus of (BD2 million) in the value of the trade balance in November of 2021 compared to the same month of the previous year, which recorded a deficit of (BD163 million), and thus the value of the deficit decreased by 101 per cent year-on-year.