Bahrain is to launch an aggressive marketing campaign to attract major foreign companies.

'An initial list of 350 leading firms has already been established,' Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro said yesterday.

He was speaking as he met officials in charge of Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP) to review marketing strategies aimed at projecting Bahrain as the ideal gate to GCC markets for leading foreign industrial companies.

Thirty foreign companies have chosen Bahrain as a basis for their operations in the Gulf and the Middle East.

Dr Fakhro credited the newly-established BIIP with playing a key role in this achievement, being an attractive asset.

The ministerial taskforce has short-listed another 350 foreign companies operating in various industrial sectors.

The campaign is line with Bahrain's objectives to promote its industrial and trade sectors.

'The team has been instructed to step up their efforts and target the firms as part of the marketing crusade,' Dr Fakhro said.

'I am sure that the target companies represent the key to a successful future.'

The team will seek face-to-face meetings with officials in charge of these foreign companies which run operations in the Middle East.

Contacts will also be established with leading foreign companies with no regional headquarters or industrial operations in the Gulf.

'The package of incentives being offered can project Bahrain as key location and propitious opportunity for leading companies to seize,' Dr Fakhro said, citing the fiscal and custom exemptions, skilled labour force, modern infrastructure and strategic site.

'The challenge of achieving this goal is the greatest and success depends on the efforts deployed by the ministry and the Economic Development Board,' Dr Fakhro added.-TradeArabia News Service