Bahrain braces to become textile hub

Tribune News Service

Bahrain is going to be the hub of a new $200 million textile business spread across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. MRS Fashions, which has been putting Bahrain on the global fashion map for the past 16 years through its manufacturing unit in the kingdom, is now setting up its new regional head office.
It will oversee operations of the company’s textile factories in Oman, Jordan, Ethiopia and the existing one in East Riffa. The new office called Must World will serve as a “virtual manufacturing hub” for all the factories operating under its banner in the region, with more than 30 jobs created for locals in different fields including fashion designing. “We have successfully operated our business in Bahrain for the past 16 years and highly value the skilled workforce and the business-friendly environment,” said MRS Fashions executive director Harinder Singh Lamba.
“The regional head office that will open this year will oversee our existing facility in Bahrain, the new unit set up in Oman and two other plants to be set up in Jordan and Ethiopia by the year end. “The Bahrain regional head office will handle $200m worth of US orders, producing around 18m garments per year.” The office will offer sampling, mechanising and fashion design services, besides logistics support, to the units in the Mena region.
Lamba, who will be the executive director of the regional head office, said they were expanding in Bahrain at a time when textile factories were facing the heat with hundreds of workers expected to lose their jobs when the tariff preference level (TPL) expires on July 31.
Apparel manufacturers MRS, Ambattur and Noble, and WestPoint Bahrain, a home furnishing manufacturer, together are believed to employ nearly 8,000 people. The textile firms enjoy duty-free exports to the US under the 10-year-old US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which took effect in August 2006.
They only qualify for this tax-free status because of a temporary TPL clause in the trade agreement which allows the firms to use raw materials imported from countries that are not signatories to the US-Bahrain FTA but still export garments to the US duty-free. “Apparel and textiles contribute 27 per cent of total exports from Bahrain to the US while the total investment in the sector is believed to be in excess of $250m,” said Lamba.
“There is no doubt these are challenging times for us and other textile factories in Bahrain who are affected because of the TPL expiry next month. “We will be soon closing the Bahrain International Investment Park unit in Hidd as there is no point paying the overhead costs and instead focus on expanding the new regional office here as part of the company’s strategy.
“The existing facility in East Riffa will continue to function in the hope that Bahrain government will push for a renewal of the TPL. “Nothing beats Bahrain’s strategic location which will save our travel time in the region to conduct business here with the state-of-the-art financial institutions.