Bahrain's industrialisation drive has seen important developments in recent months, with significant expansions and hopes that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed with the US will somehow trigger investments and perhaps create of new production facilities.

The kingdom has also made progress in developing an industrial area in Hidd, which will include technology and science parks and be supported by the new Shaikh Khalifa Bin Sulman Port.
The most significant expansion, which is nearing completion at Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), comes at a time when neighbouring Qatar has announced a partnership for its own project to build a large smelter.
Bahrain is unfazed over Qatar's and possibly other regional states' plans to set up similar ventures, saying competition is inevitable, but that there is also scope for co-operation between smelters in the region.
Alba's Potline 5 start-up phase is scheduled to begin on March 7, 2005. Around the middle of 2005, the smelter will have more than 800,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of primary metal, including some 320,000 tpy from the latest expansion, to help Bahrain's own downstream industries and also meet the requirements of its international buyers.
Another regional giant, Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mills Company (Garmco), is raising its own capacity from 145,000 tpy to 240,000 tpy through the utilisation of the new continuous casting technology.
Significantly, the Middle East has become the largest importer of its products, displacing the Far East and reflecting large-scale construction activities that are being carried out in the region. 
Bahrain Atomisers International is also contemplating a brownfield expansion that will involve a capacity increase of 20 to 30 per cent and a substantial investment in equipment and technology.
Another company that graduated from a machining centre to a foundry facility, and is engaged in both fields, has reported spectacular progress. Metals of Bahrain (MEBA) has won orders from discerning customers in the UK and the US for its precision metal components produced through casting and machining.
A company that has made big investments is Manama Textile Mills, which all along has been producing yarn and cloth, but has announced plans it will make garments, sheets and high-end suiting.
International companies are looking at Bahrain to house some of their facilities including production and logistics. Among the recent entrants to the kingdom were Ciba Specialty Chemicals, which has established a trading hub, and the German business group, Trapp Networks, which is involved in construction.
European aluminium systems supplier Reynaers Aluminium has started operations in the region through a joint venture agreement with Ali Khalaf, a 35-year-old Bahraini. Reynaers Middle East, as the new firm will be called, will market Reynaers products throughout the Gulf.
Also recently, a Bahraini-Malaysian joint venture firm was set up to offer revolutionary air conditioning systems. Bahrain-based Almoayyed Contracting Group, which operates under the umbrella of YK Almoayyed & Sons, has teamed up with Megajana of Malaysia to establish the Almoayyed-Megajana District Cooling Company.
Local entrepreneurs are seeing potential in Bahrain and hoping the relatively large neighbouring market of Saudi Arabia and states in the Middle East will be destinations for their manufactured goods.
Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain has taken the lead in setting up a $1.7 billion complex that will house a petrochemical project, a power plant and a water unit.
The project is described as the fruit of co-operation between the company and Bahrain's Ministry of Industry and includes some big names as consortium partners.
 A project set for commissioning soon is the Bahrain Ferro Alloys plant, which will produce alloys such as ferro manganese and silico manganese.
The facility will have a production capacity of 90,000 tonnes and will help meet a significant portion of the demand for alloys in the Gulf.
A company hoping to be a powerful force in the construction industry is Falcon Industries, which a few months ago commenced construction of aluminium composite panels that it markets under the brand name Alpobond.
Falcon's sights are beyond the Gulf and the Middle East, and the company expects to produce 240,000 tonnes in the first year and is optimistic it will be competitive in the Gulf market despite competition from Far East manufacturers.
The Bahrain government, confident its businessmen have what it takes to set up viable projects, is extending encouragement and assistance.
A support vehicle for start-ups of small and medium businesses is said to be doing well.
The Bahrain Business Incubator Centre, less than two years' old, houses 22 projects, eight of which were created by women and five have foreign partners. Fifteen of the projects have been created by young Bahraini entrepreneurs entering the business world for the first time.