Bahrain could soon be forced to follow a tough new building code as part of a regional push to standardise the construction industry across the region.

Delegates will join their counterparts from the other five Gulf countries in Doha on Monday for the three-day First Forum on GCC Unified Building Code.

Initial discussions could result in a unified regional building code that would benefit regional economies as well as conserve national energy.

The event is being hosted by the Qatar Environment Ministry and the GCC Standardisation Organisation.

Regional building experts, national standardisation bodies and technical experts from the US, Australia and Turkey will attend.

Officials said there was a discrepancy between the laws in the region's countries and the code would help raise quality standards in the sector and assist company trading in the six-member bloc.-TradeArabia News Service