Marcopolis presents the Bahrain Report focused on the investments, doing business, economy and other topics featuring interviews with key executives and government officials. The sectors under review are industry, telecom, banking sector, ICT, investments and more.
What are the opportunities for foreign investors in Bahrain ? What are the sectors you would like to see developed ?
Bahrain has a solid and growing industrial base, yet our limited natural resources of land and water, demand that we look towards higher value goods and services, and in this respect economic policy development led us to the position of considering a knowledge based-economy, clustered around key sectors of comparative advantage, in order to sustain growth for future generations.
The industrial sector is identified in the Government Vision 2030 as playing a key role, in expanding GDP and employment opportunities , and together with the commercial sector will remain the engine for economic development in the Kingdom.
I would not go into the specifics of which industries we consider to be promising, as in my view there is potential across the board, however the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC) has built a portfolio of industrial opportunities for the consideration of investors, and continues to expand on this as a means of highlighting some areas of potential interest, in aluminium and derivatives, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and foremost in the field of small and medium categories.
For sure our sights are firmly set on less energy intensive industries. However, the MOIC is keen on developing a wide base of manufacturing so that the economy is not reliant on any one particular industry. Efforts have been underway since the 70s to diversify, and indeed even after the discovery of oil in the 1930s Bahrain has been making efforts in this regard.
Because of the limitations which we face of land, water and energy, it is of paramount importance that we focus more on high tech industries, developing the manufacture of products higher-up the value chain will provide higher paid employment and higher export earnings from our limited resources. The Government is keen on the transformation of the economy into a knowledge-base built around certain key clusters of industries with nexus to the overall objectives of Vision 2030, and we remain confident of developing more manufacturing downstream of our major industrial outputs.
What more can be done to improve this ranking ? (Wold Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2010 Report)
Bahrain was ranked at 28 in the 2010 World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report, but this should also be read in the context of other rankings, such as for example the Heritage Foundation Report, which ranks Bahrain as the 10th in its Economic Freedom Index, and the highest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
How much easier it is to be critical than correct (Disaeli). I would ask those who would criticize Bahrain, to look to their own countries before ruminating on the situation in Bahrain, and without having full factual knowledge of our present history and the events which have occurred since February of this year. |
The World Bank Report rankings are based on an analysis of processes and procedures which relate to a medium sized With Limited Liability (WLL) company. However in Bahrain, the most popular vehicle for establishing a business is through a Sole Proprietorship or Partnership, in which the procedures and formalities are much simpler.
In any event there is much more that Bahrain can, and is doing, in terms of improving the administrative and legal process for companies. A new raft of commercial laws is in process, which includes, a new Company Law, Competition Law, legislation to deal with secured lending, and a new Bankruptcy Law. Taken together with the Phase 2 of our eInvestor system, which will provide a whole new experience for investors by creating a virtual on-line application system, I believe that the process of entry into the market, access to financing, and exit from the market will be taken to a whole new level, and will indeed improve our overall ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.