Manama: Around five billion dinars (Dh48.56 billion) will be invested over the next few years at the Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP) in the Hidd area on Muharraq Island, the industry and commerce minister has said.
The park, established in 2005, is expecting commitments from 43 new projects and will employ more than 8,000 people, Dr Hassan Fakhro said.
"Seventy-one projects will ultimately take shape at this premier industrial facility," the minister said as he opened the 4.14-million dinar Zayani Polymers, the 28th plant to open at the BIIP and with massive expansion plans in the near future.
"Another 23 projects are currently under construction and 20 more projects are in the pre-construction stage," he said.
New plants will include MTQ, a major Singapore engineering company that has already constructed a 9,000 square metre facility to provide specialist engineering services for companies in the oil and gas industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Ilium France which has developed a new patented technology to manufacture structural glass reinforcements, has now launched operations at its new joint venture with local Bahraini company BFG, the minister said.
CPIC, the largest manufacturer of fibreglass in China, is also planning to set up a 45,000 square metre facility with the potential to employ up to 1,000 people.
"When we established the BIIP in 2005, we set about developing a facility that could support and nurture the development of the best of Bahraini and Middle East companies," Fakhro said, quoted by the local media.
"We also set about creating an environment that could attract and support the leading manufacturing companies in the world and we are now well on the way to meeting both of these key targets," he said.
Top family companies in Bahrain that include Maskati Brothers, Mannai's Glass Tech and Awal Gulf Manufacturing are already there, alongside Abahsain Group, Al Gosaibi Holdings and Arabian Sugar Company from Saudi Arabia.
"These Bahraini and regional investments have been augmented by BIIP providing a new GCC manufacturing home to Kraft Foods and to Siemens and BASF," Fahkro said.
