MANAMA, 17 November 2005 — Bahrain has allocated more than 1.04 billion Bahraini dinar ($2.76 billion) for infrastructure projects over the next two years, Bahrain’s Works and Housing Minister, Fahmi ibn Ali Al Jowder, announced yesterday.
The move is an attempt to attract more foreign investment in Bahrain, which is currently enjoying a budget surplus enabled by high oil prices.
Several key infrastructural projects are already underway, including the expansion of Bahrain’s airport, the completion of a second sea port and the upgrading of the roads network.
Al Jowder also said yesterday he was forging ahead with plans to create 19 islands on land reclaimed from the sea as part of a project to solve the archipelago’s growing housing problem.
The project, which is known as the Northern City, when competed would result in turning the archipelago that has 33 low lying islands into a 52 one.
“Land reclamation is a natural process,” he said. “This is not something that worries us. Singapore which was once smaller than Bahrain is larger today and land reclamation is a viable choice being implemented in Holland”.
Bahrain is one of the Gulf countries that subsidies and offer ready-made housing projects to citizens at cost prices.
Undersecretary for Public Works Affairs and Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Launch Nayef Omar Al-Kalali described the new ethics revealed as “important one” that go to the heart of their organization.
“The ministry is undergoing a massive improvement process which includes all functional aspects,” he said.
“The results of the process are already tangible as far as the leadership, the public and the ministry’s employees are concerned.”.
The new identity captured in the mission statement and the vision and values shape the ministry’s long-term strategy of going to a more professional organization and shift gradually to a high level project management body supported by a strong coordination and integration capacity.
“We see the core competency of the ministry to be centered on project management, integration, coordination and value engineering,” he said.
“The strategic thrusts of the ministry should, therefore, be built around those competencies that are required to handle large complex projects of strategic impact, and outsource implementation and delivery of services to the private sector over the longer term”.
Bahrain, which has relaxed banking and financial laws, is pushing to become a gateway to Gulf markets by signing a free trade agreement with the United States.