More Filters
There were 1402 results found for:

All Regions and All Sectors

Analysis

Bahrain considers establishing single sharia authority to oversee Islamic financial services sector
OBG
plus

The global Islamic finance industry is a rapidly growing but relatively new phenomenon, and therefore the approach of national regulators varies from one jurisdiction to the next. Almost all regulatory frameworks, however, fall within two broad models: a centralised system, with some form of higher sharia authority to pronounce upon regulatory issues, such as those operated by Indonesia and…

Analysis

Consolidation becomes priority as Bahrain seeks to maintain status as sharia-compliant banking centre
OBG
plus

Regulators are encouraging mergers and acquisitions in Bahrain’s Islamic banking industry in a bid to cement the country’s position as one of the world’s leading sharia-compliant financial centres. At the end of 2016 the governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) repeated calls for the country’s Islamic lenders – of which there are currently six retail and 18 wholesale – to consider…

Analysis

Sharia-compliant financing becomes increasingly common across GCC, including Bahrain
OBG
plus

Within the spectrum of Islamic financial services (IFS), project financing has been one of the slower segments to develop. Historically, the reason for this has been the cost differential between conventional project financing and its sharia-compliant counterpart. In the past, conventional tenors also tended to be longer – up to 20 years for power and water projects – than those offered…

Analysis

Following delays, momentum builds for compulsory health insurance in Bahrain
OBG
plus

It has been more than a decade since Bahrain’s Shura Council, the state’s main legislative body, first granted its approval for a compulsory health insurance system. The proposal came at a time when governments across the region were attempting to shift the increasingly costly burden of health care provision towards the private sector. After its 2005 acceptance by the council, the government’s…

Analysis

New gas terminal set to bridge Bahrain's energy demands
OBG
plus

With significant expansion projects in both aluminium and power generation slated for between 2017 and 2020, Bahrain is investing in a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal that will offer these gas-intensive enterprises greater security of feedstock supply. Although domestic production of natural and associated gas increased by some 3.2% in 2015, imports will enable more rapid expansion…

Analysis

New round of upgrades planned for Bahrain's Sitra refinery
OBG
plus

In May 2016 nogaholding, the investment arm of the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), signed a $570m credit agreement allowing it to move ahead with a $5bn overhaul of the country’s existing refining facility. This move would boost output capacity to 360,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from the 276,676 bpd produced in 2015. Bids were submitted in October 2016 for the engineering, procurement…

Analysis

Efforts and progress in meeting demand for housing in Bahrain
OBG
plus

Thousands of Bahraini citizens are set to move into new properties in 2017 as the government makes good on its pledge to provide 25,000 new homes by the end of 2018. The houses and flats have been funded through the Ministry of Housing (MoH), the Gulf Development Fund and through public-private partnership (PPPs) agreements. The homes are built to an agreed specification and then handed to…

Analysis

Shopping becomes main attraction for visitors to Bahrain
OBG
plus

Being a short distance from more populous nations means Bahrain’s retail sector is strongly linked to tourism, with many visitors coming to the kingdom for the express purpose of shopping. Around 11m people drive across the King Fahd Causeway between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain every year, and according to a tourism survey for the third quarter of 2015, shopping was the main purpose of visiting…

Analysis

New tourism strategy and brand identity aim to increase average length of visitor stay in Bahrain
OBG
plus

Bahrain has a new tourism strategy as of 2016, together with a new tourism identity, to build greater awareness of the country as a travel destination. The strategy aims to see tourism revenue increase to $1bn annually by 2020, up from around $700m in 2015. This would almost double the contribution of the sector to GDP from about 3.6% in 2015 to 6.6% for 2020. The strategy also names specific…

Analysis

Bahrain expands mass transit options
OBG
plus

A new light rail service could help travellers avoid heavy traffic and turn the journey from Bahrain’s new airport to The Avenues shopping centre into a stress-free shuttle ride. Transport planners are going back to the drawing board to breathe new life into a mass transit proposal for 2020 that was first tabled in 2010. RAIL REVISITED: The Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications (MTT)…