Middle East Business Group Launch in Singapore

It is truly an honour to stand before you and explain a little bit about what my thoughts are, what my country’s ambition and vision is, and how regionally Singapore can benefit from its greater partnership with the Middle East.

When I came to Singapore in the year 2000 it was a very different world. We were freshly starting a reform programme that is now well underway both politically and economically. If I compare what we have learned over the past seven years to where we were at that time it is really night and day. We have faced international disasters, challenges, and opportunities that have challenged us to develop new ways of thinking; new models of behaviour; and new paradigms for understanding in order that we may best respond in a matter that suits us.

Ladies and gentlemen, my country, the Kingdom of Bahrain, is so similar to Singapore in terms of size, in terms of demographics, in terms of geographical positioning. A Small country next to much larger neighbours. A young and growing population. A mixed and diverse cultural heritage. I could be speaking about the same place. In the 1970s our GDP per capita was relatively similar.

However, today Singapore is clearly further ahead down the road of development. This is without the benefit of natural resources. Bahrain has been blessed with the discovery of oil that has allowed us to build an infrastructure – a modern infrastructure – for our people. But it has also been a curse because it has not allowed the best and the most competitive spirit of our people to emerge in the manner that we would wish. So this is a reflection. Bahrain is a reflection of those issues which you will face in the rest of the Middle East – the wider Middle East.

Our platform for reform was largely drawn upon your experiences; was also drawn upon the experiences of other nations that have faced these challenges such as Ireland. And it focuses around the concept that the individual – the Bahraini citizen, the Middle East citizen – must be at the centre, for a lack of a better term maybe, of any reform programme. We have decided that in order to rise to the challenges of the new century or the new millennium we must make the private sector the main engine of growth. And it is in that regard that I am standing here in front of you today.

Let me tell you a little bit about what we have done. We have aggressively pursued barrier removal and have, as much as possible, tried to eliminate obstructions, impediments and bureaucracy from the current government procedure. There is much yet to be done, but we are much further along the road than we were. We are investing in certain sectors in the economy, stimulating them making sure that people are aware we are interested in growing them. Whether it is in downstream manufacturing from our aluminium sector, whether it is in banking and finance, or whether it is in business services, tourism, healthcare, or education. Those are all sectors we are aggressively pursuing.

We, as I said, are placing our citizen at the centre of this activity. So we are investing in our education, and this is the main reason, along with this auspicious occasion, that I am here. Because I want to learn and I want my team to learn from you – what you have done, what you have achieved, and how you have done it. We are reforming our labour market so that workers benefit from an ever-increasing cycle of productivity. Employers as well learn how to develop their businesses to compete on a global stage in an ever-increasingly challenging environment. And finally, we are making government a regulator and not an operator. This has meant that over 75 percent of our power is now in private hands. We have privatised our ports and we have fully liberalised our telecommunications market, which has seen it grow and expand almost exponentially.

So, ladies and gentlemen, as the senior Minister rightly pointed out there is a growing realisation in the Middle East that we must respond to the challenges that our people demand us to. We must provide a better standard of living for the many young people that are now living and growing in our part of the world. And the only way to do that is by increasing the size of our economies. Economic growth is the single best guarantor of a stable and productive political and economic environment.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we are open for business. We want to increase our trade links with Asia. We think there is a sizable amount of investment that is ready and willing to make its way here and we think there are sizable amounts of opportunities – and good opportunities – for you to invest in the Middle East.

It gives me great pleasure to stand before you today at the launch of the Middle East Business Group to invite you to come to the region. And let me speak for once now as an ambassador not just of Bahrain but also of the Middle East. Please come and visit us. Please come and see us, get to know us. Do not read only what you hear in the news as the way of the world or our region. We are truly a diverse culture, we are an ambitious culture, we are entrepreneurial, and we are open for business.

So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for being here. I will not take up any more of your time. I think your presence here is proof enough that there is enough room and enough willingness to make sure that we make this succeed. And at least from my part I will do my best when I get home.

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.