A FIVE-YEAR industrial strategy that will kick off in the new year is expected to create thousands of jobs and pump millions of dinars into Bahrain’s economy.
The ambitious 2022-2026 plan revolves around five main points: Strengthening national industries, investing in infrastructure, improving investor experience, guiding Bahrainis professionally, and updating laws and legislation.
Nearly 6,000 new jobs will be created and at least BD679 million is expected to be injected into the national economy during the period.
Details of the plan were unveiled in a Press briefing by Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed Alzayani at the Isa Cultural Centre, Manama yesterday.
The blueprint focuses on launching a programme to increase the value of major purchases from small and medium local factories, and providing incubation programmes for small and medium industries to encourage creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The strategy also involves expanding Export Bahrain solutions to provide services that will help enhance the efficiency of supply chains, in addition to developing the “Made in Bahrain” brand by enhancing local content in national products and cadres joining the industrial sector, and launching an Industrial Excellence Award to enhance competitiveness among factories, and support integration in industries by studying manufacturing gaps locally, regionally and globally.
Besides the existing eight industrial areas in Bahrain, three new ones will be established which will be tailor-made to fit in with the objectives of the Economic Recovery Plan announced by the government last month.
“The strategy aims to prioritise developing promising sectors which will contribute to transforming Bahrain into a developed industrial sector,” said Mr Alzayani.
Pointing out that the 2022-2026 scheme is centred on innovative and advanced initiatives, he said: “The leadership has directed us towards more focused industrial projects that increases the GDP (gross domestic product), increase the exports of the industrial sector of national origin, and provide promising job opportunities for citizens.
“The strategy is based on supporting the sector’s transformation towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution while introducing new environmental-friendly production concepts, encouraging investment in technological infrastructure and digitalising manufacturing.”
He added that plans to increase the efficiency of supply and supply chains through the integration of Gulf industries would be also introduced.
“Currently Bahrain is well known for industries such as aluminium and petrochemicals and these will be developed further,” said the minister.
“Clean industrial projects will see us focus on the green and blue hydrogen, food and pharmaceutical industries and the microelectronics industries.”
Mr Alzayani stressed the importance of providing appropriate preparation for various industries by investing in infrastructure, by increasing the area of industrial zones by allocating areas for promising sectors.
“We had 59,209 workers in the industrial sector and this is set to increase to 65,291 by 2026 end and the percentage of Bahraini workers is set to increase from 23 per cent to 25.3pc.
Transformation
“The BD1.865 billion contribution in 2019 is set to increase to BD2.544bn from the industrial sector under the strategy with the industrial share in the GDP increasing from 12.8pc to 14.5pc.
“Industrial exports are set to increase from BD2.168bn in 2019 to BD2.475bn in 2026 with total national exports increasing from 70.1pc in 2019 to 80.1pc in 2026.”
The minister said that the GCC has jointly entered into Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, China and the UK.
Meanwhile, Tamkeen chief executive Hussain Rajab said the aim is to align the transformation of the industrial sector with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“We will provide training programmes in various fields, such as manufacturing, automation and artificial intelligence.
“The promotion of national industries is a shared responsibility.
“Tamkeen is committed to raising the capacity of national industries by supporting national institutions by subsidising wages for national cadres, and providing incubation programmes for small and medium national industries to encourage creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.”
He added that Tamkeen was determined to develop an integrated programme to achieve this goal by providing specialised industrial programmes such as workshops, lectures and others, in co-ordination with educational and training authorities.
“We will also launch programmes to develop Bahrainis’ skills through international professional programmes in the industrial sector, launching incentive programmes to employ Bahrainis in the industrial sector, and encouraging factories to provide on-the-job training opportunities for graduates of technical and vocational education.”
mohammed@gdn.com.bh
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