Electronic trading platform bolero.net has signed an agreement with Bahrain’s commerce ministry. The agreement sees the ministry adopting the Bolero platform as the standard for secure document exchange in Bahrain.

At the moment 10% of businesses in the region operate online. This agreement gives Bahrain a lead over other countries in the Middle East by making it significantly easier for businesses in the kingdom to join the e-commerce revolution, claims Bolero.

As a first step, the commerce ministry portal has been upgraded and enhanced to allow secure, electronic trade transactions to be conducted through it.

The ministry of commerce is also drawing up plans to allow vertical industry sectors in the kingdom, as well as some of Bahrain’s leading companies to adopt bolero.net through its own portal. At the same time, bolero.net will be opening a new regional office in Bahrain

According to Abdulla Mansoor, undersecretary of the ministry of commerce, “We are entering an important phase of integration between the worlds of information technology and commerce through this cooperation with bolero.net, a service that has revolutionised the world of e-commerce and made it more secure and simple.”

“The kingdom of Bahrain has been making impressive strides in ushering in the e-commerce revolution,” says bolero.net’s chief operating officer for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Steve van den Heever. “bolero.net is proud to work with the ministry of commerce to support and sustain these moves.

“The momentum provided by the government through earlier initiatives will gather steam as bolero.net moves to break down the obstacles that were preventing the full scale adoption of e-commerce, in addition to laying to rest any doubts about the security of exchanging electronic documents online.”

Created by the world’s logistics and banking industries, bolero.net makes it possible for cross-border trade to be conducted online, in a secure environment underpinned by a unique legal structure. This has the effect of both accelerating exisiting business process as well as making them more transparent to all the parties involved. Importers can be more certain that what they ordered is being delivered and exporters win greater visibility and certainty on when and how much they are going to be paid.

Businesses adopting bolero.net realise substantial savings in reduced operational expenditure associated with moving documents and dealing with discrepancies. More importantly the commercial margins on business can be increased though optimised bills payable and receivables and better stock management delivered through the improved visibility of bolero-based transactions.