Officials say they are being bombarded with requests for exhibition space in Bahrain, sometimes receiving up to 16 inquiries a day from event organisers.

However, they are promising to bring major showpiece events to Bahrain once the country's main exhibition centre expands into the desert.

The Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre (BIEC) is moving on to bigger and better things - relocating to land near Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, by 2011.

Its new home will be 10 times the size of its current complex in Sanabis, Bahrain Exhibition and Convention Authority acting chief executive officer Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen told our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News on Wednesday.

The project is being spearheaded by Industry and Commerce Minister and authority chairman Dr Hassan Fakhro.

The new BIEC will have 120,000 sq m of exhibition space on land granted by Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company - the investment branch of the Bahrain government.

"We have 16 inquiries a day for the current venue and we want to bid for bigger events and entice them to stay on for leisure time - we want to draw business tourism," said Stanford-Kristiansen.

The new exhibition complex is being billed as a partnership between the public and private sector and is expected to create several jobs.

The authority will manage the centre, but Stanford-Kristiansen said no decision had been taken on whether the BIEC would continue to function in some form at its current location. - TradeArabia News Service