Two Bahrain companies - Al Jazeera Cooling and Heating Factory and Awal Workshop - will have their production lines transformed in an effort to eliminate ozone depleting gases.

will ensure the refrigerators and air-conditioners they produce are chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) free by the middle of next year, said national ozone officer Jameel Eksail.

Top award for Al Zain

Bahrain's Al Zain for Jewellery chairman Nabeel Al Zain's design has won him the Gold Virtuosi International Jewellery Awards. The winning design was chosen from more than 3,000 sketches from 34 countries, said World Gold Council, the award sponsor.

Qafco in urea deal

Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco), a joint venture company with Norway's Norsk Hydro, has signed a deal with Hydro France, a Norsk unit, to market 150,000 tonnes a year of urea in South Africa. A Qafco statement said the company's exports to southern Africa were set to touch 180,000 tonnes per year (tpy), taking into account the quantities sold outside the scope of the agreement. Qafco, in which Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC) has a 75 per cent stake, produced 1.37 million tonnes of ammonia and 1.65 million tonnes of urea from the three trains in 1999.

UAE-India council mooted

The UAE Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry are likely to form a joint business council (JCB) soon. Besides business to business engagements, the JCB will pursue growth and development of the small scale industry.

Dubal to mine bauxite in India

The UAE's Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) has been permitted by India's Andhra Pradesh state government to go ahead with its project of mining bauxite in the coastal district of Visakhapatnam.

A state minister said the government had accepted the Dubai firm's proposal to set up a one million tonne per year alumina project at a cost of Rs 50 billion ($1.12 billion).