This article is written by Abdullah bin Adel Fakhro, Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the opinions expressed below express the opinion of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CNN.
The question today is no longer: What can each Gulf country create on its own? But what can we, as countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, do together?
I have always believed that the future of Gulf industry is not built solely on the capabilities, capabilities, and ambitions that each country possesses, but rather on our ability to link these capabilities together and benefit from the competitive advantages that our countries enjoy to build a more integrated, flexible, and globally competitive Gulf industrial system.
This idea represents, to me, the essence of the phrase “Made in the Gulf.” When the Kingdom of Bahrain hosts, during the period from 6 to 8 October 2026, the “Made in the Gulf 2026” Forum and Exhibition, we do not view it as just an exhibition of products of Gulf origin, but rather a platform that reflects a broader vision for the future of industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. A vision in which we move from industry within the Gulf to industry through the Gulf as a single system.
From policy integration to factory integration
Over the past decades, the GCC countries have made important strides in building common frameworks that support trade and industry, from the Gulf common market and the customs union, to legislating many unified systems, laws and specifications.
These gains provided an important basis for Gulf economic integration, but I believe that the next stage must move this integration to broader horizons. After the policies and regulations between the GCC countries converged, the time has come for production chains to converge, for factories to integrate, and for the common Gulf market to become more integrated into an integrated market for industry, investment, and common Gulf value chains.
We want to see a factory in Bahrain as part of a value chain that starts from a raw material in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the Sultanate of Oman, and benefits from an advanced technology or service in the United Arab Emirates, and from a supplier or investor from the State of Kuwait or the State of Qatar, all the way to a final product that carries Gulf added value and competes in global markets.
This is the vision that we should work to achieve. We are not required to replicate the same industries in each country, or to view our industrial capabilities as competing with each other, but rather to determine where each country’s competitive advantage lies, and how we can complement each other.
The greater the interconnection between our factories, suppliers and investors, the greater the volume of intra-industrial trade, the greater the Gulf content in our products, and the greater the economic value that remains within the GCC countries.
The world is changing...and the opportunity lies before the Gulf
This vision comes at an important moment for the global economy, as supply chains are being reshaped, global companies are reconsidering production and supply sites, and technology is changing the nature of industry at an unprecedented pace, while flexibility, sustainability, industrial security, and access to markets have become essential factors in investment decisions.
There is no doubt that these transformations impose multiple challenges, but in return they open up to the GCC countries an exceptional window of opportunity. The Gulf region today possesses a group of important components that are difficult to meet in one region, including: energy and raw materials, capital and financing capabilities, advanced infrastructure, ports, industrial and logistical areas, advanced technology, qualified and trained human competencies, in addition to a strategic location in the heart of the global trade movement, and a growing network of trade relations and agreements with a number of the most important international markets.
If we are able to employ these elements in an integrated manner, the question will not only be about the size of the Gulf industry, but also about the position that the GCC countries can occupy on the global industrial map during the next decade.
Our ambition here must not stop at the borders of the Gulf market only, but rather for the Gulf Cooperation Council system to be an industrial center at the heart of the global economic movement. A center linking East and West, where industry, trade, logistics, finance and technology meet, and from which Gulf products with high added value are released to global markets.
Bahrain...the national industry within a broader Gulf vision
In the Kingdom of Bahrain, we launched the Industrial Sector Strategy (2022-2026) from a clear vision to build a more competitive, advanced and sustainable industrial sector, based on technology and innovation, focusing on value-added industries, supporting the transition towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the circular carbon economy, and enhancing the access of Bahraini products to regional and global markets.
But at the same time, we view the Bahraini industry as part of a broader Gulf system. The Kingdom of Bahrain does not need to possess all the elements of the value chain within its borders in order to be able to build industries qualified to compete globally, and this is also the case for any GCC country.
Our true strength lies in our ability to access what our countries collectively have, not just what each individual country has. In the GCC countries, we have different and complementary competitive advantages. From raw materials and energy, to technology, capital, logistics, infrastructure, human competencies, and market access, if we can link these advantages within shared Gulf value chains, we not only expand the markets for our factories, but also raise their ability to grow, export, and compete globally.
The next stage... is led by the private sector
Gulf governments have played a major role in building the legislative and institutional environment that paves the way for this integration. As for the next stage, the private sector must be at its heart, an engine for economic growth.
Manufacturers, investors, entrepreneurs, innovators, financial institutions, and research and development centers are the ones capable of transforming Gulf integration from policies and agreements into trade, investments, projects, factories, and actual partnerships.
Therefore, I aspire for the “Made in the Gulf” exhibition to change the way Gulf industrialists look at opportunities. Instead of the investor asking: What can I make in my country? We want the question to become: What can we make together as Gulf countries? Where is the Gulf supplier that can be part of my production chain? What Gulf technology can develop my factories? Which Gulf partner can help me expand? What product can we design, manufacture and market together to the world? When these questions begin to transform into investment decisions, contracts, and partnerships, we have effectively moved from the integration of policies to the integration of economies and factories.
From “Made in the Gulf” to “We Made It Together”
Hence, our ambition for the “Made in the Gulf” Forum and Exhibition goes far beyond its three days. We want it to spark new industrial partnerships, investment deals and opportunities, relationships between manufacturers and suppliers, new Gulf value and supply chains, and ideas that turn into products, technologies and factories.
We also want this forum to be a platform for discussing the issues that will determine the competitiveness of Gulf industry in the coming years. From smart factories, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and industrial innovation, to supply chain flexibility, sustainability, finance, Gulf competency development, infrastructure, and industrial zones.
But my greatest ambition is for the phrase “Made in the Gulf” to evolve over time from a mere indication of origin to a common industrial identity. An identity associated in the minds of the world with quality, innovation, reliability, sustainability and competitiveness.
Success in the next stage will not be measured only by the number of factories we establish, or the size of the investments we attract, but rather by the extent of our ability to connect our factories, increase trade between them, maximize Gulf content and added value, and build products that can reach from the Gulf to the world. When the Gulf product becomes the result of capabilities and capabilities extending across more than one Gulf country, “Made in the Gulf” will no longer be just a description of the place of production, but rather an expression of an integrated production system.
This, in my opinion, is the transformation that must be led by the next phase of the Gulf industry’s journey, which is to move from a group of successful national industries to an integrated Gulf industrial system that benefits from the strengths and capabilities of each country and transforms the Gulf’s position and common capabilities into a global industrial power.
From the Kingdom of Bahrain, next October we look forward to bringing together industrialists, investors, innovators and decision-makers from various GCC countries and the world, not only to review what we have made, but also to discuss what we can create together next.
Because “Made in the Gulf” in its essence is not only an identity for what we produce today, but rather an ambition for what we can create together for the future. The future is not only “Made in the Gulf”... but rather “We made it together in the Gulf”.
