Empowering growth

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister yesterday outlined Bahrain’s strong economic fundamentals that have empowered the nation to overcome different challenges.

This came as HRH the Crown Prince took part in a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative along with HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and Saad Hariri, the Prime Minister of Lebanon. “The strong economic fundamentals have ensured that the Kingdom would never witness a year of negative growth,” the Crown Prince said, while highlighting that the government’s recently-announced Fiscal Balance Programme will eliminate the country’s budget deficit by 2022. Rebalancing efforts include a reduction in government operational expenditures, reform to the water and electricity framework, a new voluntary retirement scheme for government employees, and the introduction of the VAT.

“The Fiscal Balance Programme allows us to structure our economy to be more ready and more capable of being sustainable well into the next decade,” the Crown Prince said. HRH Prince Salman went on to highlight the need to move from an oil economy to a smart oil economy, noting that 86 years ago the region discovered a tremendous resource under the desert and with it built refineries, factories, schools, and housing.

In this regard, the Crown Prince said, “We must give people the tools to succeed, so the lines that we build in the future are the lines of credit and support for start-ups and for businesses all over the region. The refineries that we build must be the incubators that house and allow great ideas and companies to be born. And the ports are the infrastructure and our connectivity to the world – whether that be physical or digital infrastructure.”

The Crown Prince outlined wide-ranging efforts that have been undertaken to develop the Kingdom’s business environment, which has resulted in a tenfold increase in Foreign Direct Investment since 2015, whilst noting that any investment in Saudi Arabia also benefits the wider region.