Nearly 50 years later, one of ASRY’s first builders walks the dock he helped raise from sand
TDT | Manama
Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com
When Mr Chai Gyu Lee arrived in Bahrain in 1976, the island’s horizon was little more than sand and wind. The air was heavy with heat, and the beach at Al Hidd was bare, a stretch of earth where a dream was about to take shape.
“I was sceptical whether we could actually build a dock in this barren desert,” Mr Lee said, recalling those early days. “But thanks to the determination of the team of Koreans, we worked hard and completed it beautifully.” He was part of a 1,300-strong workforce that toiled through the heat and sand to bring Bahrain’s first dry dock to life.
Homecoming Visit
Nearly fifty years later, the Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Company (ASRY) welcomed him back for an emotional visit, attended by ASRY management and representatives of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Bahrain. He travelled with his family and toured the yard’s facilities, guided by a presentation from Wael Mirza, ASRY’s Post-Sales and Commercial Affairs Manager, tracing the yard’s growth since its founding in 1977.
Proud Welcome
ASRY’s Corporate Communications Manager, Fatema Al Majed, said the company was proud to receive one of the people who helped lay its foundation. She revealed the visit began with an email from Lee’s daughter, who wrote that her father longed to see how ASRY had evolved.
“When I came from the airport this time, I saw a lot of progress, and I felt good,” Lee said, beaming. “Bahrain today is number one.”
He urged ASRY’s young engineers to keep working hard, as success, he said, comes only with patience and effort - the same spirit that once turned sand and seawater into steel and success.
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