Bahraini SMEs to have joined the SME Development Board’s Export Bahrain program managed to reach 25 major international markets over the past 12 months. The net worth of the total export volume stood at $15.5 million, marking an impressive start to the flagship program.
Export Bahrain was officially launched in Nov 2018 to help out Kingdom’s burgeoning SME sector to further expand its global footprint.
More than 30 businesses on-boarded the platform in its maiden year. They include companies operating in nine different sectors and 21 product categories such as food, furniture, manufacturing, and apparel, just to name a few.
They collectively targeted some of the most lucrative international markets worldwide including those in the US, the UK, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Germany, Japan, as well as GCC countries, among others.
The Export Bahrain program is currently focusing on Export Financing, Export Credit Insurance, Export Shipment Solutions, Market Intelligence, Business to Business Facilitation and Deal Support along with Advisory services. However, the SME Development Board has stated that it is planning on including a more diverse range of products and services to add to its export portfolio.
To achieve its broader objective, Export Bahrain has deployed nine unique service lines, all of which are open to the Kingdom’s business community.
Noting that Export Bahrain is a key economic project to give more clout to the Bahraini business community on a global scale, H.E. the Minister of Industry, Commerce & Tourism, Zayed Rashid Al Zayani, said: “We will continue to build on the success of the first year of Export Bahrain and encourage a national export culture that will continue to position Bahrain as a key business hub for exporters.”
