The challenge is to stay relevant: Finance Minister

Manama : Citing the example of how television viewing has changed from programme tv to on-demand tv, Minister of Finance, Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, said Bahrain has to embrace, understand and implement the changes happening around.  “The challenge is to stay relevant,” he said at the seventh GCC Financial Forum held yesterday.

Co-hosted by Euromoney Conferences and EDB, the event was part of the first Fintastic Bahrain Week from February 19 to 21 bringing together around 700 international and regional financial services experts to explore disruptive innovation across the industry. The conference organized at Hotel Four Seasons were attended by financiers, economists, investors, bankers and policymakers to discuss and debate challenges and future opportunities for the global financial sector, and what how it resonated in the region. 

Shaikh Ahmed spoke about how Bahrain responded to global changes by diversifying its economy much earlier than its neighbours. “It is for all of us to try and keep up,” he said in a lively conversation with Charlie Corbett, the editorial director of Euromoney Conferences. Today, more than 80 percent of the country’s GDP comes from non-oil sectors. Earlier during the conference, the chief executive of the Economic Development Board, Khalid Al Rumaihi, said a venture capital fund worth $100 million would be established next month, to accelerate growth.

As Bahrain is looking at becoming a regional leader in financial services, industrial and manufacturing, logistics, tourism and information communications, the country is also seeing buoyant growth in infrastructure investments. Bahrain is also seeing itself as a gateway into the $1.5 trillion GCC market with free trade agreements with the US, Singapore, GCC, the pan-Arab region, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Iceland. 

Bahrain communicates very well with the world market, Shaikh Ahmed said. “ We live with people from different cultures. New things are not complicated to Bahrain,” he added. 

“The diversity of Bahrain allows us to the flexibility to learn from the West as well as the emerging economies of the East,” he said. He also focused on the importance of enabling laws to ease business. “ Are your laws competing with the best out there,” he said.

It was earlier reported that the Shura Council has approved a draft bill to enable local and foreign investments in Bahrain. The financial and economic affairs committee vice-chairman Dr Abdulaziz Abul was quoted as saying that it would help draw a law that would enable long-term investments in Bahrain. 

Meanwhile, in a report published last November, the Global Entrepreneurship Development Institute (GEDI) has ranked Bahrain 34th out of 137 countries and fifth in the MENA region in facilitating small and medium industries. The report said 10% enhancement of current conditions for entrepreneurship had the potential to add $6bn to the economy. The minister also expressed confidence in how Bahrain’s is gearing toward the introduction of Value Added Tax later this year.