Work Boat Gulf Exhibition to inspire big improvements

Officially opened by His Excellency Dr Hassan A. Fakhro, Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Work Boat Gulf opened at 10:00 hours and runs through until 18:00 hours. These times will also apply on Tuesday, April 7 and Wednesday, April 8.

Dr Fakhro is also Patron of the event. He was joined at the Opening Ceremony by the Keynote Speaker, Mr Amer A. Al Sulaim who is the Executive Director, Industrial Services of the mighty Saudi Aramco group of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Mr Al-Sulaim is responsible for all the maritime activities of Saudi Aramco including all work boat and offshore support vessel services. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Arabian Gulf Workboats Association which he will publicly launch at Work Boat Gulf.

Mr Al-Sulaim said, "We have established the Arabian Gulf Workboats Association (AGWA) as a non-profit organisation that will serve. by interacting with the international maritime community and increase its knowledge and capability of providing reliable marine services. This will be achieved through promoting the local maritime human resources profession and other essential components such as marine operations, maintenance, engineering and training."

A number of local and regional work boat industry dignitaries joined Dr Fakhro and Mr Al-Sulaim at the Opening Ceremony. They strongly endorsed Mr Al-Sulaim's AGWA initiative.

The main objective of the Work Boat Gulf Event coincides precisely with the objectives set for the Arabian Gulf Workboats Association. Through its high quality exhibits and very useful program of Product Presentation Seminars, its will surely inspire significant development and improvements in the regional work boat and OSV activities.