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City
Profile
Manama
is the capital of Bahrain, one of the main
financial hubs in the Middle East.
Multinational
companies, particularly financial institutions,
have chosen to locate their regional offices
in Manama.
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Country
Rankings
Bahrain
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| Ease
of Doing Business World Bank '05 |
Not
Covered
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Corruption
Perception
Transparency International '05 |
36
of 159
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High*
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Growth
Competitiveness
World Economic Forum '05 |
37
of 117
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High
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| National
Literacy |
89.1%
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High
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GDP
Growth
(2004 est.) |
5.6%
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Med
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Recently,
a number of Gulf investors announced the establishment
of a new Islamic investment bank with a paid capital
of USD 66 million. The bank, named Venture
Capital Bank (VCB), will focus its core business
on financing promising economic projects in the
Middle East and North Africa. The bank will
be based here in Bahrain and has 44 principal
investors from across the GCC and Arab World.
The
Arab Business Council (ABC), an initiative of
the World Economic Forum, will hold its Annual
Meeting in Manama, Bahrain on 9 to 10 November
2005. The ABC is composed of 80 top Arab
business leaders who are committed to "enhancing
competitiveness in the Arab world". The Council
has become firmly established as an effective
representative of the Arab business community.
In
an additional coup for Bahrain and spurred by
the impressive statistics in Bahrain’s entrepreneurship
training and development program, the ‘Bahrain
Model of Enterprise Development’ pioneered
by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO) is going international. Three regional
UNIDO centers – Jordan, Saudi Arabia and
Abu Dhabi and one South American centre –
Uruguay – have taken steps to adopt the
Bahrain Model for training their entrepreneurs.
The Bahrain Model of Enterprise Development was
conceived to nurture entrepreneurial skills among
Bahrainis and consists of capacity building, counseling,
financial linkages and incubation.
Current
attempts are being made by a panel of young Bahraini
businessmen in the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce
and Industry to review the electoral list what
they claimed has 'discrepancies' and is not according
to the rules laid down by its constitution.
The Chamber is the biggest forum for the business
community with over 12,000 registered members.
Source:
Population:
2004 or latest: http://www.citypopulation.de;
GDP Data: 2004 CIA Fact Book estimate; Literacy:
UN estimate
*
Country Ranking Codes: A relative color coding
of where the country falls compared to the 20
other Muslim countries represented in this list.
Hgh/Green=Top 3rd; Med/Yellow=Mid 3rd; Low/Orange=Bottom
rd
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