Industry Minister highlights Bahrain’s investment opportunities

Washington, Oct. 19 (BNA): Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister, Zayed bin Rashid Al-Zayani, has highlighted the available opportunities for the private sector in Bahrain and the USA to boost trade relations between the two countries. This came as Al-Zayani participated, along with the Chief Executive Officer of the Economic Development Board (EDB), as a key speaker in the Round-table panel discussion organised by the Bahrain-US Business Council, in cooperation with the US Chamber of Commerce here. During the panel discussion, Minister Al-Zayani highlighted the fertile ground provided by the Government of Bahrain to promote direct foreign investment according to a modern and advanced economic environment in its infrastructure and legislative system. In this regard, he cited the existence of infrastructure development projects totaling more than $ 32 billion, and the strategic location of the Kingdom as a gateway to commercial opportunities in the GCC market and neighbouring countries worth more than 1.5 trillion dollars. He also stressed that Bahrain boasts high-quality qualified and trained human resources. Al-Zayani also shed light on the opportunities provided by the non-oil sectors and their growth and remarkable development in recent years, citing the tourism sector and the increase of its contribution to the GDP by more than 6% during 2017 and 2018. He also presented the ambitious plans of the strategies to attract tourism and promote its growth. The minister also underlined Bahrain’s success in coping with developments in all fields, most importantly the digital economy, noting that the kingdom has succeeded in attracting major international companies to expand their business in the region from Bahrain, including the Amazon Web Services (AWS). He also shed light on the government’s efforts to move to cloud computing, adopt the best international practices in the field of financial technology, and host the Bahrain FinTech Bay as an important interface for investment and opportunities to promote the spread of startups locally and internationally. During the panel discussion, the Bahraini delegation invited US investors and businessmen to participate in similar investment conferences in Bahrain, including the Gateway Gulf Investor Forum, which is expected to be held in Bahrain in 2020.