EDB’s Purpose to Attract $1 Billion in Direct Investment This Year
DUBAI, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain’s Economic Development Board said Wednesday it has attracted $290 million in direct investment in production and logistics in the first months of 2022 as the country seeks to diversify its oil-based economy.
The investments, 25 production and logistics corporations establishing and expanding in the small island nation, are expected to create 1,200 jobs over the next 3 years. Manufacturing accounts for more than thirteen percent of Bahrain’s GDP, EDB said.
Manufacturing and logistics accounted for more than 30% of all direct investment attracted through EDB in the year to the end of September, which amounted to $921 million, up from $839 million in all of 2021, according to EDB’s website. A figure for Investment in production last year not available.
The EDB’s goal is to attract $1 billion in direct investment this year. In total, investments of $921 million are expected to create 4,700 jobs over the next 3 years in sectors such as money services, ICT, and tourism.
An EDB executive told Reuters in June that Bahrain is in complex talks for investment deals with cloud corporations from the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates to set up there.
Bahrain, one of the most indebted countries in the Gulf, is aiming for a balanced budget until 2024, a target delayed by two years due to the pandemic.
The medium-term budget plan is connected to a $10 billion package in 2018 from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that helped avert a credit crunch.
Bahrain’s economic stimulus package, which includes $30 billion in “strategic” projects, aims to increase non-oil GDP by five percent this year and create 20,000 “quality” jobs for Bahrainis each year for the next two years.
(Reporting through Yousef Saba; Editing via Elaine Hardcastle)