Bahrain attendee of honor at 16th Arab-German Economic Forum

Bahrain will be the country of honor at the 16th session of the Arab-German Economic Forum that kicked off on Friday in Berlin, under the auspices of Philipp Rosler, Germany's Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced. The forum will be attended by a record number of representatives from various sectors of economic and political grounds within the Arab states as well as Germany in the period of 12-14 July, the chamber said in a statement. The officials will discuss various economic issues such as the cooperation between Germany and the Arab delegations in the field of information technology, small and medium-sized enterprises sector, manufacturing and Arab woman's role in the economy. During the opening remarks, Dr. Thomas Bach, chairman of the chamber, and Bahrain's Minister for Transportation and Acting Chief Executive of Bahrain Economic Development Board, Kamal bin Ahmad described the German-Arab economic relations as deep-rooted in the past decade, stressing that they must be further developed in the coming years. Bach lauded the mutual economic relations, noting that "the German-Arab economic relations have witnessed in 2012 an additional growth as the trade between the two sides went up by 18 percent compared to the year before, reaching 49 million euro, according to data by the German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce." On Bahrain being the country of honor at the forum, the Bahraini Transportation Minister praised the economic relations between his country and Germany, emphasizing the importance of the forum in further developing such ties. This forum is significant to the financial sector of Bahrain as the latter constitutes 17 percent of Bahrain's gross domestic product, which must be used in serving the country's economy, the Bahraini official noted, adding that such forums must be exploited for the development of this sector. According to the German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the 600 participants at the forum will be discussing ten economic files of joint Arab and German concern in two days. The Chamber is the official representative of all chambers of commerce and industry in the Arab states as it has been working since 40 years on developing economic and commercial ties between Germany and the Arab countries. The Chamber was established in 1976 by an initiative from Arab and German businessmen and politicians, aiming at developing and improving economic Arab-German relations.