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This chapter contains an overview of the legal framework in which local and foreign investors operate in Bahrain, including a summary of marketing investment products and services, a rundown of the changes to foreign ownership laws for certain businesses and a look at the recent amendments to real estate laws. This chapter contains a viewpoint from Hatim Q Zu’bi, Partner, Zu’bi & Partners, Attorneys & Legal Consultants.

This chapter contains an overview of the tax framework in which local and foreign investors operate in Bahrain, including a summary of accounting standards and principles in the country, an analysis of Brexit’s impacts on GCC economies and a look ahead to the possible implementation of VAT in the GCC. This chapter contains a viewpoint from Ahmed Alsulaiman, Managing Partner, KSI - Bahrain Consultants & Public Accountants.

Bahrain now has a solid telecoms market with customers benefitting from a diverse array of services and increasingly competitive rates. The 2014 World Bank “Broadband Networks in the Middle East and North Africa” report singled out Bahrain as having the only mature broadband market in the MENA region, as well as being one of only two countries in the region to have a fully open telecoms market. The ICT sector, meanwhile, now forms a major pillar of Bahrain’s economy, and also one of the core sectors Bahrain is focused on developing, both to attract direct foreign investment and to grow human resources to help propel Bahrain as a regional ICT centre. Recent years have seen a significant expansion in the ICT landscape, as well as a push towards cutting edge technologies. The country’s fourth National Telecommunications Plan, which was released in early 2016, is a further example of the government’s strategic goals and planning when it comes to the sector.

A rise in population is slowly putting pressure on Bahrain’s public health care sector, which is the oldest in the GCC region, with the first modern hospital in the Gulf established in Bahrain in 1902. The health care sector in Bahrain has historically been heavily dependent on government-run facilities and public money, but moves in recent years have set in motion the growth of the private sector. With new legislation allowing for 100% foreign ownership of private health care facilities, coupled with the arrival of a national health insurance scheme, there is now a drive for more involvement by private sector players in the near future, which will further push the development of the sector. This chapter contains an interview with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Health.

As Bahrain continues to move from an oil-dependent economy to a more knowledge-based one, education is taking a driving seat in training the next generation of young Bahraini citizens in how to prosper in this new landscape. While education has long been a priority, the focus right now is on raising overall standards, from primary education on up. Perhaps the biggest changes taking place are in the field of higher education, with a new accreditation system being put in place by the Bahrain Higher Education Council, and the arrival of foreign universities offering courses both in partnership with domestic universities as well as at their own local campuses. This chapter contains an interview Riyad Y Hamza, President, University of Bahrain.