Gulf Industry Fair 2013 going Dutch

The seminar, held at the Rotterdam Chamber of Commerce and entitled 'Gateway to Billion Dollar Markets', was organised to promote bilateral trade between the two Kingdoms.

An initiative undertaken by the Dutch Honorary Consul General to Bahrain, Jaap Vaandrager, with support from Al Hilal Group, Bahrain's leading publishing house, the seminar is also part of the global marketing and brand building efforts for Gulf Industry Fair 2013, the Northern Gulf's premier industrial showcase being organised next January by Al Hilal Group subsidiary Hilal Conferences & Exhibitions (HCE).

Mr Vaandrager and Ahmed Suleiman, Director of Public Affairs, Al Hilal Group, delivered presentations at the seminar, at which it was announced that there would be a 'Dutch Pavilion' at Gulf Industry Fair 2013 to showcase the Netherlands' broad industrial expertise.

Vaandrager said, "Promoting bilateral trade is a priority for the governments of Bahrain and Holland. The Dutch are coming in strength to Gulf Industry Fair 2013, because we feel from our first-hand experience of the show in 2012 that it is an ideal showcase for Dutch companies. Holland has a long history in engineering, innovation and manufacturing that is well known around Europe but strangely, looking at our export figures, it is not that well known in the Gulf."

The total value of Holland's exports reached EUR404.6bn in 2011, up 8.9% from 2010. The value of Holland's export trade was the second-highest in Europe after Germany. As the fifth largest exporter of goods in the world, the Netherlands occupies a prominent position in world trade; Holland's main trading partners are its EU partners and the USA.

Suleiman said, "We found the Dutch companies very receptive to the proposition of trading through and in Bahrain. As a leading European export and trans-shipment hub Holland is Europe's hidden business gem with much expertise to offer, in particular in the fields of energy, chemicals, logistics, water and innovative high tech industries."

Jacob van der Vis, Senior International Advisor at the Rotterdam Chamber of Commerce, said, "We have been successful through this private sector-driven initiative to provide interested Dutch companies with practical solutions to enter the GCC market through Bahrain, as well as identifying projects of potential interest to a number of the companies as entry points into the region."

"Feedback from these companies was very positive in light of the excellent presentations from Mr Vaandrager and Mr Suleiman - we have whetted the appetite of many of our members for the GCC market in general and Bahrain in particular, and will look to follow up with more meetings of this type," he added.

Gulf Industry Fair will be held from 15 to 17 January 2013 at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre (BIECC).