Some of the UK's leading car and motorcycle manufacturers, as well as key environmental, manufacturing and engineering organisations will be in Bahrain for the 'Great British Week' celebrations which opens tomorrow (January 15).

The event, which runs till next Wednesday, will be hosted in conjunction with the third Bahrain International Airshow (BIAS), reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

It includes an 'Advanced Engineering and Innovation' event sponsored by the Economic Development Board (EDB).

The event, to be held at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), will bring together more than 250 delegates for an exhibition of British car and motorcycle manufacturers including McLaren, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Mini, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Jaguar, Triumph and JCB.

Delegates will travel to the BIC buildings on the newly-designed London Routemaster buses, it stated.

It will also see companies across an array of sectors, including the Ordnance Survey/SLRB and Blue Water Bio, participate in the event.

Great British Week, held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad celebrates the strong ties between Bahrain and the UK - a relationship that saw over $400 million of bilateral trade in 2011 alone.

Bahrain is home to 25 British companies, including EY, HSBC, McLaren Automotive, and Standard Chartered Bank. There are 7,000 Britons currently working in the kingdom.

"This event will form an important part of next week's Great British Week celebrations and we are proud to be a sponsor," said Kamal Ahmed, Bahrain's Transportation Minister and the acting EDB chief executive.

"The relationship between Bahrain and the UK is one that stretches back nearly 200 years and will continue to play an important part in our future. We are delighted to be a part of the activities going on this week," he stated.

"These celebrations, alongside BIAS, at which many of the UK's leading manufacturers will be present, are a testament to our commitment to building on the relationship between our two countries in the future," noted Ahmed.

"British companies have much to offer Bahrain and we will continue to provide them with an ideal access point to the fast-growing GCC market, an economy that is now worth $1.5 trillion, and is expected to grow to $2trn by 2020," he added.

Alongside the business-focused activity, the Formula One pit garages at the BIC will host an exclusive demonstration by McLaren Group of the new P1 plug-in hybrid supercar and 12C sports car in addition to a demonstration from pupils of St Christopher's School who are participating in the 'F1 in schools' global educational initiative.

Speakers at the event will include McLaren's P1 Programme director Paul Mackenzie, McLaren Applied Technologies market development lead Jim Newton, Rolls Royce Aero customer marketing director Jason Sutcliff, and Scottish entrepreneur Richard Noble, who is a former holder of the land speed record between 1983 and 1997.-TradeArabia News Service