CBB’s role is to inspire, lead and overcome challenges: Al Maraj

Bahrain’s top banker yesterday voiced his strong backing to the Kingdom’s digital transformation drive stressing the role of the Central Bank of Bahrain role as a regulator “to inspire, lead and overcome challenges to innovation.” CBB’s role, the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain said, would lead and overcome challenges to innovation, and foster the growth of the digital economy and FinTech ecosystem in Bahrain.”

Rasheed Mohamed Al Maraj also highlighted the recent rollout of regulations that support the Kingdom’s digital transformation including a Personal Data Protection Law. Al Maraj was speaking at the Digital Economy Forum & Expo 2020 organised by BBK in collaboration with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) as a Knowledge Partner.

The forum, under the patronage of the CBB, focused on investigating how the economy can benefit from the growth potential of the digital revolution of today, and its impact on the national economy: not just through survival, but further development and progress.

Under the theme “Transforming Businesses & Society through Digitisation”, more than 500 senior representatives from various sectors discussed the opportunities of digital transformation in the Kingdom. Cloud-first policy Opening the event with keynotes were Jeremy White, Executive Editor at WIRED Magazine (UK) providing a glimpse of the future technologies used to propagate economies.

Mohammed Ali AlQaed, Chief Executive of the Information & eGovernment Authority highlighted the achievements of the government in the Cloud-First policy. The forum also presented a ministerial panel on digital economy in Bahrain and the future potential that can be realised to enhance businesses, featuring Kamal Ahmed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications and Zayed R. Alzayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.

The forum discussed how the national economy is affected by the major pillars of digital transformation within the forum’s six tracks: Leadership & Culture, Innovation, Customer Experience, Jobs of the Future, Women in Technology, and Startups. The forum also highlighted various sectors that have a direct impact on the economy, some that include but are not limited to Health, Banking, Financial Services, Government, Education, Oil & Gas, Telecom and Architecture.

Chairman of BBK, Murad Ali Murad shared his perspective by saying, “It is a way of life for us at BBK to continuously enhance products and other functionalities to further contribute towards the digital transformation journey in the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

BBK Group Chief Executive, Reyadh Yousif Sater, pointed out that the backbone of the digital economy is hyper-connectivity “which means growing interconnectedness of people, organisations, and machines that results from transactions run over the Internet and mobile technology.”

On his part, the BIBF Director, Dr Ahmed Al Shaikh said, “In light of technological evolution, the Kingdom of Bahrain is progressing towards the transformation of a digital economy, and it is now vital to emphasise how the entire economy can benefit from digital transformation, as it can have significant competitiveness and productivity-boosting opportunities related to access to digital products and services.”

Alongside the main event, an international expo was also held to showcase digital applications & solutions by international providers from various sectors.