Louisiana State Rep. Roy Burrell recently returned from a trip promoting Louisiana in an unusual location — the Middle East.

“In (promoting Louisiana), it may open the doors of opportunity for economic or technology transfer,” he said.
Burrell was asked to join a group of minority business owners that received an invitation to visit Manama, Bahrain in hopes of promoting economic development between the two countries.

“It is basically an island country near Saudi Arabia, Morocco and south of Kuwait, that has become the financial Mecca for that region,” Burrell said.

According to the representative, the United States and Bahrain have a free trade agreement.

“We found them to be very receptive and very eager to talk with us, which I felt was very unusual,” he said. “I was very impressed with their process which makes establishing an American company there almost easier than establishing one here in the United States.”

Burrell said that before he took the trip, he had the opportunity to attend a Ways and Means Sub-Committee meeting. He took informational packages from that meeting on the trip and shared them with the different entities that he met with.

“I took the liberty of gathering the information from that meeting, and I took that information with me to let the Bahrainian government know that there may be opportunities for them here in Louisiana,” he said.

Burrell said that there have been some challenges to providing sufficient funds to maintain the states infrastructure.

“We have at least 17 ports in the state. That is more than any other state in the nation. They are smaller ports.

They are inland ports. So, I am hoping that perhaps there may be potential investors in Bahrain,” he said.

He said that in addition, it could initiate trade between Louisiana and Bahrain, particularly in the area of agriculture.

“Many of the smaller ports were built for their access to such things as grain bins. But, many of them are also struggling now. Perhaps garnering potential investors and creating trade between the two countries would strengthen the smaller ports,” Burrell said.

Burrell said that in addition to sharing tourism and infrastructure, there was also an educational exchange.

“We shared our entrepreneurial training program, that is a part of our inner city entrepreneurial institute, that I manage called BIZ Camp,” he said.  “The program is world wide in the U.K. Germany, India and Israel. Why not in Bahrain.”

In an effort to nurture the potentially new relationship between Louisiana and Bahrain, Burrell met and established a rapport with several different Bahrainian agencies.

“We met with a number of different officials such as the Chief Administrator for the Bahrain Investment Centers,” he said. “It is a government agency under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce that actually gives out information about the country such as statistics and the types of businesses that are in operation in Bahrain.”

He said that he also had the opportunity to meet with the American Chamber of Commerce. An agency that is very helpful in identifying American businesses and helping them to do business better with Bahrainians.

In a mutual exchange, Burrell said that he has requested and received information from the tourist bureau and the chamber of commerce in Bahrain on other potential investments for Louisiana in that country.

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