‘ADVANCED ENGINEERING & INNOVATION EVENT’ SET TO BRING LEADING UK MANUFACTURERS TO BAHRAIN

EDB-sponsored event joins GREAT British Week celebrating UK-Bahraini relations

Manama, 15 January, 2013: Some of the UK’s leading car and motorcycle manufacturers, as well as key environmental, manufacturing and engineering organisations,  will be in Bahrain on 18^th January for the Kingdom’s GREAT British Week celebrations, which include an ‘Advanced Engineering and Innovation’ event sponsored by Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).

The Advanced Engineering and Innovation event, held at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), will bring together over 250 delegates for an exhibition of British car and motorcycle manufacturers including McLaren, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Mini, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Jaguar, Triumph and JCB. Delegates will travel to the BIC buildings on the newly designed London Routemaster buses. It will also see companies across an array of sectors, including the Ordnance Survey/ SLRB and Blue Water Bio, participate in the event. 

GREAT British Week, held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, celebrates the strong relations between the UK and Bahrain – a relationship that saw over $400 million of bilateral trade in 2011 alone. Bahrain is home to 25 British companies, including Ernst & Young, HSBC, McLaren Automotive, and Standard Chartered Bank, and there are 7,000 Britons currently working in the Kingdom.

HE Kamal bin Ahmed, Minister of Transportation and Acting Chief Executive of Bahrain EDB, said: “This event will form an important part of next week’s GREAT British Week celebrations and we are proud to be a sponsor. The relationship between Bahrain and the UK is one that stretches back nearly 200 years and will continue to play an important part in our future.”

“We are delighted to be a part of the activities going on this week. These celebrations, alongside the Bahrain International Airshow, at which many of the UK’s leading manufacturers will be present, are testament to our commitment to building on the relationship between our two countries in the future. British companies have much to offer Bahrain and we will continue to provide them with an ideal access point to the fast-growing GCC market, an economy that is now worth $1.5 trillion, and is expected to grow to $2 trillion by 2020.”

Alongside the business-focused activity, the Formula One pit garages at the Bahrain International Circuit will host an exclusive demonstration by McLaren Group of the new P1 plug-in hybrid supercar and 12C sports car in addition to a demonstration from pupils of St Christopher’s School, a British international school in Bahrain, who are participating in the ‘F1 in schools’ global educational initiative.

Speakers at the event will include Paul Mackenzie, McLaren’s P1 Programme Director, Jim Newton, Market Development Lead at McLaren Applied Technologies, Jason Sutcliff, Customer Marketing Director at Rolls Royce Aero and Richard Noble OBE, the Scottish entrepreneur and former holder of the land speed record between 1983 and 1997.

GREAT British Week, which will run from 15^th to 22^nd January 2014, will be hosted in conjunction with the third Bahrain International Air Show. The celebrations are an important part of the build-up to mark the 200^th anniversary of friendship and strong bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and Bahrain. The celebrations open with a Bahrain British Business Forum lunch on the 15^th January at the Radisson Hotel and include events such as a performance by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra on the 16^th January at the National Theatre.