MANAMA: Trade ties were in focus at the Turkish and Bahrain Bilateral Business Forum and B2B meetings at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence and Spa.
The event is an initiative of the Turkish Exporters Assembly in co-operation with Bahrain Businessmen’s Association and Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society and the support and co-ordination of the commercial counsellor of Turkish Embassy in Manama.
A delegation of over 14 Turkish companies that were looking to contact and build links with their counterparts in Bahrain were present during the event.
The companies operate in health software, building-design, security systems, banking, trade finance, natural foods, food supplements, grain oils, bakery ingredients, building materials, metal recycling, paper converting industry, baby apparel and others.
They received significant interest from Bahraini counterparts.
More than 150 business people attended and all parties were happy to meet face-to-face and discuss their products and market potential. The event results proved that focused meetings are very important indeed.
Furthermore, the Turkish representatives were quite happy to find out great potential in setting up their offices possibly in the form of JVs with their Bahraini counterparts in Bahrain as a hub to cover GCC markets.
An embassy official said in 2018, trade volume between Turkey and Bahrain increased by 17 per cent to exceed $500 million. However, it is still much under its potential, said the official.
Turkey and Bahrain share similar cultural values.
In many of the products that Bahrain imports, Turkey has competitive advantage in world markets.
Turkish food products are liked in Bahrain; there are many Turkish restaurants. A lot of famous Turkish clothing brands gave franchises and opened shops in malls, she added.
&uuid=(email))