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.

Country Rankings Bahrain Ease of Doing Business World Bank '05 Not Covered Corruption Perception Transparency International '05 36 of 159 High* Growth Competitiveness World Economic Forum '05 37 of 117 High National Literacy 89.1% High GDP Growth (2004 est.) 5.6% Med

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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