Bahrain 4th in ease of doing business

Manama : The Kingdom has been ranked fourth in the GCC in ease of doing business by Forbes, just behind United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Qatar. 

UAE ranked highest in the region with a global rank of 33, Oman came second with a global rank of 52 and Qatar ranked 54th globally. The Kingdom’s global ranking is 60 among 139 nations while Saudi Arabia positioned 80 and Kuwait 84 on Forbes latest annual list of rankings for best business in 2016. 

Bahrain ranked 60 in Trade Freedom, 89 in Monetary Freedom, 42 in Property Rights, 60 in Red Tape, 91 in Investor Protection, 128 in Personal Freedom, 4 in tax, and 73 in Market Performance.

 “Oil comprises 86 per cent of Bahraini budget revenues, despite past efforts to diversify its economy and to build communication and transport facilities for multinational firms with business in the Gulf,” Forbes stated. 

 “In addition to addressing its current fiscal woes, Bahraini authorities face the long-term challenge of boosting Bahrain’s regional competitiveness—especially regarding industry, finance, and tourism—and reconciling revenue constraints with popular pressure to maintain generous state subsidies and a large public sector,” it stated. 

Globally, Sweden followed by New Zealand and Hong Kong took the top spots. Forbes used the World Bank’s Doing Business report to grade countries’ taxes, investor protection and red tape. The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom was used to rate trade freedom and monetary freedom while World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report was used to rate technology and innovation.

Explaining the process of determining the ranking, Forbes stated, “We determined the Best Countries for Business by rating 139 nations on 11 different factors: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance.”