Day: November 29, 2021

Manama, Export Bahrain and talabat have signed a region-wide agreement to facilitate the export of Made-in-Bahrain products throughout the MENA region with the aim of improving trade and business for SME exporters based in Bahrain through Talabat’s online platforms.

The agreement, which was signed at talabat’s ‘talabat kitchen,’ a two-story Cloud Kitchen showcasing the future of food at Expo 2020, by Export Bahrain Acting Chief Executive Safa Sharif Abdulkhaliq and talabat Bahrain’s Managing Director Hesham Al Saati heralds the start of the organizations’ collaborations to support SMEs based in Bahrain business expansion and international growth.

The agreement stipulates enhancing cooperation between both sides to list companies based in Bahrain on talabat Mart (tMart); talabat’s Quick Commerce (q-commerce) concept to deliver products to customers within 20 minutes 24 hours a day. The agreement includes Bahrain and GCC branches of tMart to provide businesses with international exposure and better trade opportunities in the region, additionally, to encourage restaurants in the Kingdom to franchise and branch out into regional markets through the support of talabat GCC Cloud Kitchens.

“Since its inception, Export Bahrain has been constantly striving to foster deals with key regional and international role players in the industry, in pursuit of its objective to empower exporters in Bahrain, with a special focus on SMEs, and to enable them access to growth opportunities.

Signing this agreement with talabat serves this goal, as it offers a platform that grants regional exposure to Bahrain-based SME exporters and permits them to offer and deliver their products to customers across the MENA region.

This agreement will result in enhanced collaboration that would reflect positively on advancing national exports and increase the contribution of this vital sector to the Kingdom of Bahrain” Export Bahrain Acting Chief Executive Safa Sharif Abdulkhaliq commented.

“We are very excited to be signing this partnership today. For the last 9 years, we have been committed to developing a sustainable ecosystem for our vendors in Bahrain, and now we are very privileged to be able to expand that ecosystem across international borders for the first time,” Managing Director of talabat Bahrain Hesham Al Saati said.

In Bahrain, we all know how good our Made-in-Bahrain products are – and to be able to help drive more sales for our local Bahraini small and medium businesses, and to be able to see them in homes all around the region will be a very proud moment for us,” he added.

Export Bahrain has facilitated over USD 110 million in SME export value in the past three years, providing SMEs in Bahrain with the necessary support to export more than 51 different product and service categories across 10 sectors, and facilitating its reach to more than 56 markets across the GCC, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, UK, and the US.

Talabat is one of the leading food and grocery delivery service providers in the MENA region. The company delivers hundreds of millions of food orders, grocery items and other products per year, to customers in 9 countries throughout the region. Talabat delivers for 27,000 brands and almost 50,000 branches, while its q-commerce concept, tMart, delivers groceries to customers in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman Qatar, and the UAE in 20 minutes or less.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

His Excellency Sultan bin Rashid Al Khater, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce &Industry, held a series of bilateral meetings with a number of officials on the sidelines of his official visit to trade and intellectual property international organizations, located in Geneva, Switzerland.

H.E. Mr. Al Khater met with H.E. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

H.E. Mr. Al Khater stressed Qatar’s firm commitment to WTO principles and agreements and its support for member states’ efforts aimed at preserving the WTO’s vital role in consolidating the ideologies of international trade.

H.E. Mr. Al Khater thanked H.E. Mrs. Iweala for her efforts in this endeavor, praising her participation in the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg, which took place last June.

During the meeting, officials discussed ways to enhance Qatar-WTO cooperation, and mechanisms to support the negotiations currently taking place within the framework of the Organization, to address the challenges facing the multilateral trading system globally.

H.E. Mr. Al Khater also met with H.E. Mr. Daren Tang, Director–General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The meeting touched on the distinguished cooperation between Qatar and the WIPO, and discussed aspects of strengthening the partnership between the two sides.

H.E. Mr. Al Khater stressed Qatar’s firm commitment to WIPO’s principles and agreements. Qatar is seeking to join a number of additional WIPO conventions and is an active participant in several aspects related to the Organization’s negotiations, H.E. Mr. Al Khater stated, further pointing out the State’s support for all efforts to reach an international agreement on protecting broadcasting organizations against piracy.

Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry

His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al-Thani, Minister of Commerce & Industry, met with a delegation from the German Federal Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (BVMW) headed by Mr. Markus Jerger, BVMW Executive Director.

During the meeting, the officials discussed ways to promote trade and economic cooperation between Qatar and Germany.

H.E. the Minister of Commerce & Industry witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Investment Promotion Agency of Qatar (IPA Qatar) and BVMW, to establish a representative office in Qatar, creating the BVMW’s first-ever headquarters in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

The MoU was signed by H.E. Sheikh Ali Alwaleed Al-Thani, Chief Executive Officer, IPA Qatar, and Mr. Jerger.

H.E. the Minister praised this major step, indicating it reflects the keenness of the Qatari and German governments to consolidate their strategic partnership. This is especially in light of the two sides’ common denominators, which have been translated into initiatives to enhance Qatari-German trade and investment exchange.

H.E. added that the MoU would allow German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to learn and benefit from the investment opportunities and advantages available in Qatar. The MoU moreover offers them the possibility of expansion into various markets in the region, H.E. further noted.

Scheduled to start its operations in Doha early next year, the office aims to strengthen Qatari-German relations in the business field by connecting the 9,000 BVMW members with their Qatari counterparts.

Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry