Deals worth millions of dollars were struck as more than 2,300 trade visitors attended the fifth Gulf Industry Fair, which was inaugurated by HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.
The event has been hailed as a major success by exhibitors who are now looking forward to the next edition which will run from January 15 to 17 next year.
“Given the challenging times industry is facing, this has been an extremely solid turnout with participants announcing a lot of deals and signalling future business in the pipeline from contacts they have made over the past three days,” said organiser Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions managing director Jubran Abdulrahman.
“We had strong support for the energy, port and logistics and aluminium zones.
“A lot of people have already expressed their desire to sign up for next year’s event which should be an even stronger one as the Gulf Industry Fair is now firmly established as the premier industry trade show in the region,” he added.
The show got off to a flying start with Bahrain-based Hull Diving Services Company and TE SubCom of the US signing a deal worth $1 million on the opening day itself.
Bahrain’s Al Ghassan Trading struck 15 deals while Ali Ahmed Al Kuwaiti finalised a deal worth $2 million while Bahrain Logistics Zone signed a memorandum of understanding with SAMEL, a joint venture between Schmidt Heilbronn and Agility, a global specialist for bulk business, which makes Bahrain its base to hub out its logistics operations.