Bahrain's Ministry of Commerce has contracted with bolero.net to use the electronic trade finance platform to provide local businesses with a secure document transfer service.
The Ministry is drawing up plans to allow other industries and companies to adopt the Internet-based platform through its own portal.
Abdulla Mansoor, undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce, says: "We are entering an important phase of integration between the worlds of information technology and commerce through this cooperation with bolero.net."
Currently just 10% of businesses in the region operate online. Bolero.net says the deal will break down obstacles that were preventing the adoption of e-commerce and lay to rest any doubts about the security of exchanging electronic documents online.
Bolero.net has also announced plans to open a regional office in Bahrain.
The platform was created in 1999 by banking and logisitics associations under an initiative to transfer the movement of paper-based trade documents onto the Internet.