Bahraini Industry Minister Lauds High-Tech Level in First Israel Visit

Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani pleased by small business opportunities: Micro-business is key to bilateral growth

Since the announcement of the Abraham Accords last August, breakthroughs signaling the “coming out” of trade between Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain have been fast and furious.

The latest testament to the détente saw Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister H.E. Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani arrive in Israel on Tuesday for a three-day visit, along with a delegation of 40 economic officials and leading business people.

Alzayani is the second minister from the Gulf country to visit the Jewish state, following a visit last month by Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani.

While speaking to the media in Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, the minister addressed issues that included the sudden onset of an apparently robust aviation relationship with the beginning of scheduled commercial flights between Bahrain and Israel, mutual business opportunities, Israel’s prowess in IT, and Bahrain’s vision for 2030.

Following a visit to startup high-tech success Mobileye, the minister took a walking tour through Jerusalem’s Old City for the first time.

Alzayani was appointed Bahrain’s minister of industry, commerce and tourism in 2014. Prior to his governmental position, he was chairman of his family business, Alzayani Investments. He served as the managing director of First Motor and chairman of Bahrain International Circuit Co. until 2016. Alzayani received his MBA in finance from Boston University. In 2017, he was appointed chairman of Gulf Air’s Board of Directors.

An Israeli [in Bahrain] is treated like any other nationality in the world. Nothing less, nothing more

Alzayani was unequivocal in stressing that the relationship between Bahrain and the Jewish state would be no different than other nations.

Responding to a reporter’s question, he dismissed the idea of separate guidelines for Israel, saying that: “We deal with Israel and with Israeli companies like we deal with others, like an Italian or Indian or Chinese or German company, or a Saudi company, for that matter. So there is no restriction or special treatment or special rules. We have started a new chapter with Israel and we feel, like I shared with his Excellency the prime minister [Binyamin Netanyahu] yesterday, that the brave step has been taken by the leadership in signing the accord, the foundation has been laid by the diplomatic teams that established the ties to facilitate travel and the e-visas, and now the challenges are on us, the business side, to build bridges.”

He added: “As government officials, of course, our role is mainly to facilitate and eventually regulate, but we look upon the private sector to forge this peace further by doing deals together or whether it is exchange of goods and services or ultimately joint venture partnerships in Bahrain, in Israel, or jointly together somewhere else in the world.”

Regarding specific projects, he said Israelis are welcome to enter the state bidding process that is carried out through a transparent tendering organization, the Bahrain Tender Board.

Addressing the sensitive question about goods from the West Bank and Golan Heights, the minister explained that, “We will recognize them as Israeli products and all Bahraini products hopefully will be recognized in Israel as Bahraini products. I don’t see, frankly, a distinction in which part, which city, which region it was manufactured or sourced from.”

Noting that roughly half of Bahrain’s population is comprised of foreign nationals, the minister responded to a question about foreign residency from The Media Line. Alzayani said that “if Israelis wish to reside in Bahrain, they are most welcome. They will be just like the other 50% you mentioned. Bahrain has a very cosmopolitan lifestyle, a very tolerant lifestyle, and year after year we get ranked amongst the top three countries in the world in expatriate satisfaction living with expatriates living or working abroad.”

“So, again, I think, the easiest way to treat it is that an Israeli is treated like any other nationality in the world. Nothing less, nothing more,” he said.

When The Media Line asked about Alzayani’s stated interest in cyber- and maritime-security, and companies he met while in Israel, the minister said: “Not specifically in that field, but what I was fascinated by is the level of innovation and IT technology that is embedded in the Israeli economy.”

He described his visit to Mobileye, an Israeli subsidiary of Intel corporation, and his first experience in a driverless car.

“We went for about a 20-minute ride in the streets of Jerusalem. It was a nice experience. My closest relationship to it was like being a child in a roller coaster for the first time. There is excitement but there is also euphoria. And when I met [Mobileye President and CEO] Prof. [Amnon] Shashua. My family is a car dealership family; we’ve been in selling cars back home, before I joined the government of course, since the 1940s, and my first question to him is why am I seeing this in Israel and not in Korea or in Japan or in Germany, who are by far the leading car manufacturers? He gave me a very convincing answer in that what you are seeing is not automotive, but what you are seeing is an IT solution, fixed on a car.”

Alzayani added:“So that is what we want to capture from Israel, if we can get access, knowledge transfers and partnership in the fields of IT, innovation,” he continued. “We saw a lot of projects yesterday. Looking out of my room here in the hotel, the neighborhood facing the hotel, I see all the roofs have solar panels, so that is another growing sector in Bahrain, solar energy, and I think we can benefit from more cooperation with Israel. Again, I would like the private sector to take the lead in that. We will help wherever we can, however we can. But I would like to see cooperation done on a B2B [business-to-business] level, not on a G2G [government-to-government level].”

There is Jewish culture in Bahrain, there is Jewish heritage in Bahrain, so it could be an attraction point for the Jewish community whether from Israel or beyond

Asked about Bahrain developing an initiative to attract Jewish tourists from around the world, he responded that: “In 2015 we laid out a new tourism strategy for Bahrain. Prior to 2015, the tourism sector was not on the top priorities of sectors. So in 2015, after the government was formed in December 2014, the early part of 2015, tourism was added to the portfolio of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. And the philosophy behind that is that his royal highness, the crown prince, the prime ministers’ vision was, and still is, that we want to treat tourism as an industry, as a sector, not as something on its own. We took a pledge as a team to double tourism in our GDP back then, by 2018, because our government changes every four years, so we usually have a four-year program, and we managed to do that. We grew the tourism contribution in GDP from 3.4% to 7% and we were set for the next four years to 2022 to push it to 10% of GDP. Keep in mind that in those years the GDP was also growing, so we were not just growing in nominal terms but in actual terms.”

He continued: “Of course COVID came in the middle and interrupted everything. So we would like to make Bahrain an international destination, absolutely. We enjoy a lot of tourism for a country of 1.5 million-1.6 million population. We receive more than 12 million tourists a year, but predominantly from the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] region. And we have made efforts, prior to signing the peace accord with Israel, to expand the footprint to India, Russia and Western Europe, and I think Israel now is a perfect fit to be included in this.”

“Of course, there is Jewish culture in Bahrain, there is Jewish heritage in Bahrain, so it could be an attraction point for the Jewish community whether from Israel or beyond. And from our talks with [Tourism] Minister [Orit] Farkash [Hacohen] yesterday, we explored ways of having joint promotion for tourism so Israelis can stop over in Bahrain and carry over to the Far East, and for us bringing tourists from the Far East and stopping in Bahrain and carrying on to Israel, or vice-versa, doing tourism originating in Bahrain, stopping in Israel and then going west to Europe, or the other way around,” Alzayani said.

He added: “I’ll give you a very simple example. This city has the elements of religious tourism for all faiths. Last year, or the beginning of this year, we announced that Gulf Air, our national carrier, would start flying to Italy. We picked Milan and during February we were on an official visit with His Highness, the crown prince, to Italy and we negotiated with the Italian authorities that we also add Rome to the line. So were about to announce Rome, as well, but we couldn’t get it in time because COVID had spread out so we put our plans on hold. But there was leakage that we were going to go Rome. All of a sudden, we saw a spike on our Manila bookings and when we inquired why, it turned out to be Catholics from Manila who want to go to the Vatican. And we had to, in a way, shift our timing of connecting time for our Rome flight and Manila flight to be suitable to capture that.”

“I see the same with happening with Jerusalem,” he said. “We can have Catholics or Christians from Southeast Asia coming here. We can have Muslims from India and Pakistan and Bangladesh, which we serve extensively throughout our network, coming here and we can have Jewish tourism coming to Bahrain or beyond. We are also set to launch a route to New York from Bahrain and we have plans to do that and we are already talking to the Jewish community in the United States, and specifically in New York, to incorporate that as part of our tourism promotion.”

If Israelis feel more comfortable by having added security, that can be arranged, but I really don’t think it’s required

Pressed by a journalist concerning possible additional security for Israeli tourists in the aftermath of the recent targeted killings in Iran, the minister dismissed the need citing “a good security apparatus in Bahrain.” He said, “I think our security forces have done a magnificent job in keeping us all safe. If Israelis feel more comfortable by having added security, that can be arranged, but I really don’t think it’s required.”

He said: “Last night I personally went out for a walk in the city on my own with a couple of friends. I kind of snuck out because I wanted to see and feel for myself as a normal citizen, not as a government official. I spent an hour walking in the Old City [of Jerusalem] and I went to the [Mamilla open- air] shopping mall across the road. I didn’t feel threatened; I didn’t feel any security issue.”

When asked how it felt as a Muslim for the first time to be in the Holy City walking around and seeing these ancient sites, Minister Alzayani replied: “I have always spoken to people who have been in Jerusalem and they have always told me it is probably the most spiritual city in the world. I felt it last night. I felt it when I got closer to the holy sites. I don’t know, maybe. I don’t know, it was a weird feeling, maybe just me. I felt there was more spirit. And when I got to the balcony when you could see the Wall and Haram al-Sharif, you could feel the air was different, so it was a nice feeling. Probably the closest I felt to this was being in Mecca and Medina, as a Muslim. Unfortunately, the program did not allow for time to visit them at close range, but hopefully in the next coming trips.”

Minister Alzayani took exception to a reporter’s inference that the strategy is to “drag” the Palestinians into the peace process through economic issues and agreements.

“First of all, I would not use the word ‘drag,’ because drag is kind of pulling someone against their will. We welcome them; we would like them to be a partner. Obviously they are one of the major stakeholders in this initiative. If you remember, Bahrain started with [hosting] the Peace to Prosperity conference in 2019, a year before the peace accord was signed, and the whole idea behind the Peace to Prosperity [plan] that we promoted back then with the US administration and with Israel, of course, was how to improve the income of the Palestinian household. How do you bring prosperity to the region so people have a more vested interest in a better life and a better income status and a better lifestyle so they have something more to cherish and to preserve? It will come. I think sooner or later it will come.”

I think that the whole world is watching, not just the Palestinians. Other Arab countries, other Islamic countries, even Europe, everybody is watching. We have the responsibility as pioneers in this process to make sure that it is solid, everlasting, so others can buy into it

He continued: “In today’s world, economics lead politics and if we manage to make a successful economic model, others will join us. And this is what we are anxious and eager to get going with establishing economic ties. I told the prime minister yesterday, I said hopefully when I meet you next year, I will report to you that trade between Israel and Bahrain has grown 3,000%, because we are starting from zero. So it is not a big challenge and we will have a huge number to announce in a year. And he said, yeah, I like that.”

“I think that the whole world is watching, not just the Palestinians. Other Arab countries, other Islamic countries, even Europe, everybody is watching. We have the responsibility as pioneers in this process to make sure that it is solid, everlasting, so others can buy into it,” he said.

Regarding economic growth between the two nations, Alzayani stressed the interaction among small- and medium-sized entities as portending a bright future.

“What I find encouraging is that the deals have been done for the SME [small- and medium-sized enterprises] sector, which usually comes later, because, you know the bigger companies find their way. So I am very excited to see that the smaller players on both sides of the economy are getting in touch, because they are much larger in number, maybe not in volume, and at this beginning, at this early stage of economic ties, we need numbers, quantity and I know for us, the largest exporter in Bahrain is Alba [Aluminum Bahrain], our aluminum smelter. And Alba today is the largest aluminum smelter in the world. We do about 1.4 billion [metric] tons of aluminum [a year]. And I know that Alba is in very advanced talks to supply the Israeli downstream aluminum industry. So if that takes off, the $200 million is easy. Very easy.”

Switching to his hat as chairman of Gulf Air, Alzayani confirmed January 7 as the starting date for his company’s flights and maritime shipping to Israel.

Joshua Shuman contributed to this article.