Investment success!

TDT| Manama

Bahrain attracted $942million of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2019, according to the latest World Investment Report (WIR 2020) from the UN Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The annual report charts global investment flows, analyses trade trends and examines government policies that seek to expand world trade.

Globally, WIR 2020 found that FDI flows totalled $1.540trillion, representing 1.76 per cent of global GDP. Bahrain surpassed the global average performance with FDI accounting for 2.45 per cent of the national GDP last year. This is the third consecutive year that Bahrain has attracted in the region of $1billion in FDI, most notably bucking global trends in 2018 to see a staggering 16 per cent increase in FDI at a time when global flows had sunk to their lowest level since the global financial crisis.

“At the Economic Development Board (EDB), our core mandate is to support direct investment which facilitates economic diversification and leads to sustainable growth, ultimately creating employment opportunities in the market,” said EDB Chief Executive Khalid Humaidan.

Last year saw a number of milestones for Bahrain, including the launch of the region’s first Amazon Web Service (AWS) hyperscale data-centre, and being named the fourth most improved economy in the world in the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business report.

The Bahrain EDB, the Kingdom’s investment promotion agency, attracted 134 new companies to Bahrain, which is expected to result in a total investment value of $835million and to create over 6,000 jobs in the local market over the next three years. The EDB has the overall responsibility to attract investment into the Kingdom and support initiatives that enhance the investment climate.

It works with the government and both current and prospective investors, in order to ensure that Bahrain’s investment climate is attractive to communicate the key strengths, and to identify where opportunities exist for further economic growth through investment. It focuses on several economic sectors that capitalise on Bahrain’s competitive advantages and provide significant investment opportunities. They include financial services, manufacturing, ICT, tourism, logistics and transport.