HRH Crown Prince participates in FII panel alongside HRH Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, today participated in a panel discussion alongside HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and H.E Saaddin Rafik Al-Hariri, the Prime Minister of Lebanon, at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh.
During the session, HRH the Crown Prince thanked the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait for their support and belief in Bahrain’s economic journey.
His Royal Highness outlined Bahrain’s strong economic fundamentals, which have ensured the Kingdom has never witnessed a year of negative growth, whilst noting the government’s recently-announced Fiscal Balance Program 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 VAT.
“The Fiscal Balance Program 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.
His Royal Highness 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 have resulted in a tenfold increase in Foreign Direct Investment since 2015, whilst noting that any investment in Saudi Arabia also benefits the wider region.
HRH the Crown Prince concluded by congratulating Saudi Arabia’s leadership on a successful FII event and wished the people of Saudi Arabia further prosperity under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
