Bahrain has joined an industrial partnership of Middle East countries aiming to strengthen supply chains and boost self-sufficiency. A higher committee meeting of the Industrial Partnership for Sustainable Economic Development in Egypt welcomed Bahrain as a new member. Nevin Gamea, Egypt’s minister of trade and industry, said: “This partnership is key to ensuring value and supply chains, reaching industrial self-sufficiency, and creating more jobs. “We welcome Bahrain to join this partnership, which will help maximize the benefit of the industrial capabilities of the four countries.” Gamea said partners would exchange science and technology expertise, set up industrial partnerships, and take advantage of partners’ markets to promote trade.
The partnership was announced in the UAE in May this year, and the other members are the UAE, Egypt and Jordan. Bahrain is a major producer of aluminium and iron ore and would increase the partnership’s “industrial value add from $106.26bn to $112.5bn”, said the committee. The committee also gave the green light to 12 projects worth $3.4bn to move into feasibility studies, focusing on metals, chemicals, plastics, textiles and clothing. Yousef Al Shamali, Jordan’s minister of industry, trade and supply, said the meeting was a “continuation of the executive committee meetings held over the past two days and a culmination of weeks’ long sectoral workshops of experts in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agriculture, fertilisers and food”. “The meeting highlighted the political and economic ties binding our nations, and ushers in a new era of joint action and effective economic integration with tangible impacts,” he said. In 2019 the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain accounted for 30% of the MENA region’s industrial contribution to GDP with $65bn of industrial exports, the committee said.