Ministers discuss progress, future plans

Manama : Within the open talk sessions held at the Government Forum 2016 yesterday, five Ministers spoke about the means of developing the quality of services and governmental performance in major service fields.
The session included speeches delivered by Education Minister Dr. Majid Al Nuaimi, Health Minister Faeqa bint Saeed Al Saleh, Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan, Housing Minister Basim Alhamer and Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Hisham Al Jowder.
During the talk, the Ministers primarily spoke about the outstanding achievements achieved by the Kingdom in education, health, employment, housing and social services in the past few decades.
Underlining the improvement of healthcare services in Bahrain, Al Saleh spoke about the main goals set to develop the sector, within the view of the Kingdom’s 2030 vision.
Noting the efforts paid to invite the private sector to invest in healthcare institutions, she said, “Looking back, we only had a few private healthcare establishments a couple of decades ago. Now, along with the economic development, we have an attractive environment for investment in the healthcare sector, making Bahrain a regional hub for health services.”
“We’re mainly focusing on developing specialised hospitals to boost healthcare tourism in Bahrain by concentrating on certain medical fields that are demanded in the region. This step would definitely contribute in the flourishing of our economy and the healthcare services provided in the country,” the Minister added.
 Dr. Al Nuaimi stressed during his speech that “education is the backbone of nations’ development processes.”
“Education is strongly connected to the Kingdom’s economic vision. So far, we have set a comprehensive plan to develop education in our country. We first enhanced school timings, which wasn’t a very pleasing decision to some. But it has been proven that altering school hours have saved students up to three years of wasted time,” he explained.
“One of the key decisions that benefited education was the founding of the National Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority in 2008, introducing us to new international educational rankings and standards,” Dr. Al Nuaimi noted.