The infrastructure work at Bahrain Logistics Zone (BLZ) is expected to be completed by next month, according to top government officials.

This will pave the way for General Organisation of Sea Ports to sign contracts with 20 selected tenants, who will build their businesses at the facility.

The 20 tenants for this all important operation for the Bahrain economy were carefully selected from more than 70 companies and organisations, who saw the benefit of operating out of the zone.

'We ran a tenant attraction and screening process to make sure we got the right companies and the right mix,' said BLZ assistant director general Hamad Fakhro.

'We have selected a mix of value-adding local and international companies to provide the foundation for the development of our unique regional logistics hub.

'The selection of local tenants through the book-building process provided fairness and transparency-applicants so that potential tenants knew exactly what criteria they were being evaluated on in order to be short-listed.'

Once the selected tenants have been signed up in June construction work across the zone is expected to begin in the second and third quarter of this year, with the zone likely to be up and running early next year.

'This will be a true regional hub for import export and transhipping serving the northern Gulf, which will boost Bahrain's visibility as a logistics hub for the region, focusing on local and international logistics companies interested in expanding in the GCC,' he said.

And the opening of the new Khalifa Bin Salman Port will see a major increase in the amount of business available to logistics companies and also prove a major spur to Bahrain's economic growth.

As a logistics hub, the BLZ is uniquely placed in the region with close at hand services and easy access across the region. It is just one kilometre from the new port and also enjoys easy access to air freight just 13km away at Bahrain International Airport.

It also has the benefit of being just 40km from the massive Saudi Arabian market for importing and exporting and will in the future be linked directly with Qatar when the new causeway is completed.

'This is what will set us apart from the other zones in the region,' Fakhro said.

'And we went to a lot of effort to make sure that the companies we selected would add value to Bahrain, provide direct or foreign direct investment, create jobs, and support the BLZ's goal of making Bahrain a viable alternative logistics hub in the Gulf,' he added.

'The logistics industry is growing fast in response to increasing demand from businesses, and supported by government investment, the number of large infrastructure projects is increasing in the region.'

He said that with the new port having a depth of 15 metres, it would allow far larger vessels to come to Bahrain and this would lead to more transhipments from the Jebel Ali port in Dubai, where massive container ships berth.

'Using feeder ships from the mother vessel in Dubai to bring goods to Bahrain for transhipment elsewhere would cut costs for shippers looking to any of the Northern Gulf markets.

That would provide the work for the tenants in the BLZ who are expected to create as many as 2,500 jobs when the operation is fully up and running.-TradeArabia News Service