The majority of Bahraini business establishments use Internet as a means of communication, according to a study.

The availability of the Internet represents the cornerstone for e-trade whether at the individual, institutional or state level.

Internet services include electronic sites and e-mails, the study conducted by the Industry and Commerce Ministry says.

The ministry, represented by its electronic trade and information technology directorate, conducted the study in co-operation with a top studies and research house.

The study reveals that the majority of Bahraini establishments navigate electronic web pages and use e-mails. This indicates that the Internet is being used as a means of communication and not as a tool to run trade or business.

The study shows that tourism sector establishments are the only ones in Bahrain that use their Internet websites to run businesses.

The findings also show that the industrial sector uses electronic banking services more than other sectors and relies on the Internet to compare the offers of different suppliers.

The low usage of Internet (60 per cent) among other sectors in the national economy has been attributed by the study to their fear that data may be intercepted by hackers and spoilt by viruses.

More than 50 per cent of the institutions covered by the survey say that they accept CVs from job-seekers via the Internet to fill their vacancies.

At least 44 per cent of tourism establishments buy their needs through the Internet while
only one-third of the surveyed establishments say they analyse electronic transactions.

This indicates underlying weakness of infrastructure or lack of knowledge about e-trade, the study says.-TradeArabia News Service