BIDEC hailed as special opportunity to promote defence capabilities

Manama, Oct. 29 (BNA): Participants said that Bahrain International Defence and Exhibition Conference (BIDEC) presented a unique opportunity for exhibitors from around the world to showcase the latest technology equipment and hardware across land, sea and air. "BIDEC is a wonderful platform, it gives us the opportunity of meeting clients from all over the world that ordinarily we would struggle to potentially meet face-to-face gives them the ability to look at a range of vehicle that we have on display," David Kaufman Sales Director of STREIT Group, told Bahrain News Agency (BNA). STREIT Group, a privately-owned armored vehicles manufacturer from UAE with 12 state-of-the-art production facilities and 25 offices worldwide, finds that the exhibition is a huge opportunity to get more clients not only from Bahrain but also internationally. "We are always looking for new technology to enhance our vehicle fleet in the production of the vehicles that we manufacture. We’re always meeting new clients and we met several this morning already." Kaufman added. "We’re looking for new contracts obviously that keeps us sustainable as an organization and more alliances so put perpetual alliances with countries, prime ministers and government agencies". International participants and visitors showed their interest in the special event that includes off-site activities, such as shooting Demonstrations, warship display and sniper & night-vision shooting, to promote modern defense technologies that have an active role in the development of appropriate solutions to confront all threats and challenges facing states regionally and internationally. "BIDEC, for us, is a very good platform since Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) has been a customer for Rheinmetall Air Defence in Switzerland for 30 years almost," Fabian Ochsner, CEO of Rheinmetall Air Defence, said. Ochsner highlighted the importance of showcasing new systems concurrently with the conflict here in the region and how important such systems are: "Gun systems to fire against drones’ small targets and that what we're representing here." "BIDEC is in the right moment for us to promote into region what we can do to these systems that has been in service for such a long time not only here in Bahrain but also in other GCC countries," he stressed. The French participation this year was remarkable due to the number of exhibitors of many defense industries such as Thales, iXblue, LACROIX, Drago Paris and many others. "Drago Paris used to make official medals for Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense here in Bahrain about 15 years ago, we decided to participate in BIDEC in order to get new contact and to start again to produce medals for the army and for defense forces, and I think BIDEC is a very good show to promote our industry," Jean-Charles Rocher, Sales Director of Drago Paris, said. BIDEC 2019, 11 percent bigger than the inaugural edition in 2017, has 63 visiting delegations and 170 exhibitors from 33 countries. In its first edition, BIDEC won Best Trade Show Over 10,000sqm at the Middle East Special Event Awards 2018.