MANAMA, 23 May 2007 — Bahrain and Russia will jointly set up a new financial institution, it was announced on the closing day of the 7th Arab-Russian Business Forum in Manama.
The Arab-Russian Bank will have its main headquarters in Bahrain.
“It has been agreed that there will be a financial organization established jointly between Russia and Bahrain under the proposed name of the Arab-Russian Bank,” Bahrain-Russian Joint Business Council vice-chairman Abdulhakim Al-Shammary said. “It will be based in, and blessed by the government of Bahrain.” The newly formed organization will seek to ramp up economic ties between the two countries from their current modest level. “There is a very strong interest in the Bahraini side to start investment with Russia, because the present level of commercial deals is not satisfying for both partners,”Al-Shammary admitted.
“The political relationship with Russia only recently started and there was not much effort spent in the past to improve the commercial or economic relationship between the two countries — the new council will change that.” Details of the size of the Arab-Russian Bank are still to be finalized, but Al-Shammary said a committee had been set up to guide the project.
“There is a small committee being formed from the Bahraini side and they have already put the main bullet lines with regard to the location, the capital and representative methods — but at the moment I am not entitled to disclose that,” he said.
“On an investment level, the bank to be established will discover opportunities, not only in the real estate sector, but even in oil and gas investment in Russia. It will make investments in Russia and in Bahrain, with joint capital between both countries.”
The meeting of the Bahrain-Russian Business Council is planned to be the first of several future gatherings designed to build closer relations between business figures in both countries.
Al-Shammary said that there would be an exchange of delegations between Russia and Bahrain in order to establish and strengthen the relationship.
“Basically in September there will be a meeting in Russia to review the achievements and progress of this meeting,” he added.
The newly established joint council is the 13th between the Arab world and Russia, and it would benefit form the experiences of those previously established between other Arab countries and Russia, he said.
