HRH Crown Prince launches initiative to make Bahrain the fastest place in the Gulf to start a business

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister today launched the Sijilat Commercial Registration Portal, which will allow Bahrain to become the fastest place in the Gulf to start a business, and amongst the fastest in the world.

As part of the Government of Bahrain’s economic and fiscal reform programme, which began last year and aims to build on the Kingdom’s longstanding diversification efforts, the Sijilat initiative will reduce the complexity of the commercial registration and licensing procedures for all local and foreign investors.

Speaking at the launch event in Bahrain’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Crown Prince said “we have long recognised that sustainable economic growth is driven by the private sector” and that the reform will “support a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that will allow the private sector to create sustainable wealth and high-value jobs now, and for future generations.”

The Sijilat portal, which the Crown Prince said is “among a package of business reforms that are the largest Bahrain has seen in over 40 years,” eliminates the need for paperwork and integrates all relevant government organisations’ processes under one system. 

The Crown Prince said the portal will allow investors to “establish a business within less than a day”, saying that “modernising administrative procedures, whist reducing recurrent expenditure and improving public services delivered to citizens, are at the heart of Bahrain’s economic and fiscal reform efforts.”