MANAMA: The Board of Directors of Bahrain Exhibition and Convention Authority during its 4th quarter meeting noted that the meeting, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) sector showed sustained growth patterns in 2013.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Hassan A. Fakhro, Minister of Industry and Commerce Chairman of Bahrain Exhibition and Convention Authority (BECA). The Minister of Industry and Commerce and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bahrain Exhibition and Convention Authority opened the meeting with an acknowledgement of the continued valuable support of the Kingdom’s leadership and government to the exhibition industry in strengthening its contribution to the national economy and maintaining its position in this important industry in the region.
After the Minutes of Meeting of the Board of Director held on 30 September 2013 has been distributed and accepted, the Meeting was briefed on the progress on the new Expo City Project including follow-up and on-going coordination with the Private Sector for equity participation in this vital and strategic project.
Hassan J. Mohamed, BECA Chief Executive Officer, presented to the Board the positive expected Net Operational Surplus before the Government Support for the year 2013 compared to both the current year budget and year 2012’s financial results which will be subjected to audit review and confirmation, which is currently underway, by the Authority’s new external Auditors. The Board was pleased with the continued growth in the Authority’s operational performance to include a 16% increase in the number of exhibitions and conferences with 95 events in 2013 compared with 82 events in 2012, an increase by 16% in the total gross space of booked events with 2.2 million square metres in 2013 compared to 1.9 million square metres in 2012, an increase by 17% in the number of exhibitors of major events with 3,617 in 2013 compared to 3,099 in 2012 and an increase in the total days of booked events by 90% with 1,000 days in 2013 compared to 525 days in 2012. In addition, year 2013 recorded a 15% increase in the number of visitors attending all events at the Exhibition Centre and the number of participating countries in the exhibitions remained at 75 as in 2012. The increased number of exhibitions recorded during the year 2013 included over nine (9) new major exhibitions and most are scheduled to make their 2nd series in the following year. The Board is confident that the steady growth of the exhibition and convention industry will continue to escalate in 2014 with an increasing number of specialised international business-to-business exhibitions and major international events already booked as of to-date and was satisfied to note the various Management initiatives as well as improvements and upgrade projects of the existing Exhibition Centre facilities for implementation during 2014.