Bahrain’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Dr. Hassan A. Fakhro made these comments upon return from his visit to the CPIC Manufacturing Complex in Chongqing, China. During the visit, the Minister met with the Chairman of CPIC Wu Ming and members of his senior management team.
The CPIC complex in Chongqing is built on a site foot print of 800,000 square meters and the company produces over 500,000 tons of fiber glass per year and employs over 5,000 people in its global operations.
Earlier, CPIC announced its plans to invest $ 200 million in the building of a new fiber glass manufacturing facility in partnership with Abahsain Fiberglass Middle East. This new factory will be located at the Bahrain International Investment Part at Salman Industrial City. The Bahrain project will be built on a site of 78,000 square meters and at full production will employ 1000 people.
The Minister Fakhro held talks with CPIC Chairman and the discussions focussed on exploring ways and means of new opportunities of trade, investments and transfer of expertise.
The Minister also got briefing on the size and scope of the CPIC operations in Chongqing. Dr Fakhro also briefed Wu and his senior management team on the current economic and political climate in Bahrain. He also discussed the possibility during discussions with CPIC and Abahsain Fiberglass to move the project forward in 2012.
The Minister was accompanied on his visit to China by Syed Maqsood, CEO of Abahsain Fiberglass and executives of the BIIP management team.
Following his visit to the CPIC state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chongqing, the Minister said the he would look forward to see a new operation of this quality and with this level of technology, being established in Bahrain.
Dr Minister Fakhro presided at a signing ceremony where Wu and Maqsood signed a letter of intent, designed to move this project forward rapidly in 2012.
In witnessing the signing Dr. Fakro committed the full support of his Ministry and of other relevant government agencies in Bahrain to the development of this project.
Wu indicated that he would soon visit Bahrain to attend the kick start of the construction ceremony for the new project.
He also highlighted his plans to attract further Chinese companies to Bahrain by using this flagship project as an example of the quality of location that Bahrain can offer in the future.