Tamkeen will work with BASF to support the employment and training of Bahrainis for the new operation based at the Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP). The new plant will demand a range of skills, including engineers/technician for production, maintenance and quality control as well as administrative support services.
“The establishment of BASF’s largest investment in the Middle East in Bahrain serves to illustrate the ongoing success of Bahrain’s programme of economic diversification. BASF recognised the value of basing operations in the Kingdom, including the duty free access to the GCC region and the United States as well as access to a skilled workforce,” EDB Chief Executive, Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al-Khalifa said.
“However, our work does not stop at the point a company agrees to locate in Bahrain. Through Tamkeen and the EDB, BASF will be given as much support as it requires not only establish but grow its business in Bahrain underlying the Kingdom’s status as the gateway to the Gulf’s trillion dollar market.”
“BASF’s operation will be a significant addition to Bahrain economic make-up as a research and development intensive, hi-tech industry. We can expect it to grow and become an anchor for more companies and jobs in the future. It is vital that it receives support from Tamkeen at the outset to help it develop and train Bahrainis to meet the unique skills requirements demanded by the company and the wider sector as this becomes a larger part of the Bahrain economy,” Mahmood Al Kooheji, Tamkeen CEO, said.
The plant will manufacture a range of customer specific antioxidant blends (CSB). It will be one of the largest of its kind in the world with an annual capacity of 16,000 metric tons and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2012.
The grant and related support from Tamkeen falls under the organisation’s foreign investment support programme. It seeks to maximise the development impact from the establishment of new businesses and operations in the Kingdom on the Bahrain economy.