Cleaning up realty sector

The Cabinet chaired by His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, at the Gudaibiya Palace yesterday, approved a draft resolution defining the obligations related to the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing procedures in the activities of licensees in the real estate sector.

Aiming to ensure that all the practices and activities of the real estate sector comply with the best international standards, rules and practices issued by the Financial Action Task Force group (FATF), the bill is in line with the recommendation of the Ministerial Committee for Legal and Legislative Affairs, presented by the Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Committee. The session also endorsed the National Risk Assessment Report and the Interim Action Plan for Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism, and instructed all ministries to take measures to enhance compliance with FATF standards ad recommendations.

In this regard, the Cabinet underlined the government’s keenness to consolidate its efforts to combat all forms of criminality to strengthen Bahrain’s international role in combating money laundering and terrorism financing to achieve global peace and security. Among other things, the Cabinet approved the disbursement of the financial obligations to seven government entities for the fiscal year ending in 2018, worth about BD 13 million, as highlighted in a memorandum submitted by the Minister of Finance and National Economy.

The Government entities are the Interior Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa Cardiac Centre, the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry, the King Hamad University Hospital, the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and the Bahrain Oncology Centre. The session approved the consolidated annual accounts closing report and the performance report of the implementation of the state budget for the fiscal year 2018, and decided to refer them to the Legislative branch. A presentation by the Minister of Finance and National Economy showed that the total actual revenues amounted to BD 2.77 billion, while the actual expenditure was BD 3.67bn.

The actual deficit was BD895 million, while the public debt at the end of 2018 was 88 per cent of GDP. HRH the Prime Minister, out of his keenness to take advantage of the national medical expertise and competencies, gave directives to the Health Ministry to hire Bahraini doctors from the private sector to conduct operations and give medical consultations at the Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) in the medical specialties that are not available there, whenever need arises.

The Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Housing to study the implementation of a housing project on the borders of Al Dair and Samaheej villages, and to propose its location, in co-ordination with the relevant committees. The move is in line with HRH Premier’s constant follow-up on the needs of the citizens across the Kingdom.