Bahrain’s economic strides highlighted

Bahrain has made substantial progress, according to a national human development report.

The Bahrain Human Development Report 2018 was launched yesterday at the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain Bay.

It is a 60,000-word publication produced by the Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Information and eGovernment Authority (IGA) with funding from Tamkeen.

The report highlights Bahrain’s success in diversifying its economy and in recognising the importance of environmental concerns.

It documents Bahrain’s progress towards its own 2030 targets, first set out in 2008, and global targets as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals outlined in 2015.

“The authors of the report should be commended for their highly detailed analysis of the Bahraini economy,” said Derasat chairman Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

“Their findings are also welcome as they validate the many years of hard work from across the public and private sectors to deliver a more successful and inclusive economy for the people of Bahrain.”

The report’s authors emphasised two areas crucial to the success of the Bahrain economy, diversification and sustainability.

The diversification of the economy has gathered pace as government-instigated reforms have encouraged the growth of sectors such as finance, technology and logistics, along with addressing environmental issues.

“All development indices, including HDI itself, life expectancy, years of schooling, and GNI per capita, have shown upward trends since 2000,” said UN Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Amin El Sharkawi.

“The economy may still be reliant on natural resources, but all sectors show consistent growth, often at an even faster rate than oil and gas.

“This undeniably shows an improvement of quality of life in Bahrain.”

The success of Bahrain’s financial sector was a recurring theme in the report, as the kingdom is now home to nearly 400 financial institutions and the region’s first FinTech incubator, FinTech Bay.

The establishment of an excellent ICT infrastructure was also recognised as a key enabler of success across the broader economy.

Equally, the report commended the government for utilising regional integration as a source of economic growth and observed major advances in the contribution of women to the economy.

It found that on average women earn the same as men, and that more than 50 per cent of companies registered in Bahrain are founded by women.

Dr Shaikh Abdulla also noted that the 2018 national human development report was only Bahrain’s third national human development report.

The first two were in 2000 and 2001 respectively, but Derasat will now produce one report every three years to inform decision making.

Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/443110

 

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