Bahrain-Qatar Causeway to Boost Trade and Investment In The Region

Manama, Bahrain (AHN) - It is being described by many as one of the greatest architectural structure to look out for in the coming years. The Bahrain-Qatar causeway project is set to begin next year and is expected to be completed in in four years.

"The $3 billion causeway will have two lanes and one for emergency. The 25-mile causeway is ready for electric grid and oil pipe connections," the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported Tuesday.

This longest fixed link in the world, known as the Friendship Causeway, is expected to boost the trade exchange of both countries.

"The volume of commercial exchange has increased 167 per cent in the last seven years. Bahrain exports industrial and aluminium products, on the other hand imports iron bars and petrochemicals from Qatar," the BNA said.

The island nation of Bahrain and Qatar, which occupies a peninsula that juts out into the Persian Gulf, have enjoyed strong links at economic, diplomatic and political levels. This concrete connection will open doors for joint investment projects.

"The Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company (BALEXCO) signed an agreement with Qatar Islamic Bank to establish a factory for producing aluminium," BNA said. The agency reported the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tuesday with their Qatari counterparts to set up a joint Takaful Insurance company.

The causeway will be one of the world's largest over-water traffic links that also may carry a track for high-speed trains to connect the capitals, Manama and Doha.

BNA said there were plans to construct a railway line for a 380km-per-hour train that would reduce travel time between the two cities to 30 minutes.

Bahrain has been linked to oil rich Saudi Arabia through the King Fahad Causeway since 1986. "A total of 16,287,743 travellers entered via the causeway last year," Saleh Al Khulaiwi, director general of Saudi custom was quoted saying in the BNA.

The Friendship Causeway will further increase the number of travellers. About 4,000 cars would daily cross the new causeway and the number is expected to increase to 12,000 cars by 2050. The Bahrain Ministry of Labour has also opened an employment office in Qatar for Bahrainis to take up employment.

The Friendship Causeway could be seen as the Kingdom's and Qatar's effort to strengthen Gulf Cooperation Council initiatives of the common market launched in January. The region is also expected to get a boost with implementation of a common currency in the six GCC states by 2010.

The six GCC states-Bahrain, Qatar,Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and United Arab Emirates-reportedly represent more than half of the oil reserves of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), or about 484 billion barrels of oil.