Traditionally, Bahrain has concentrated on developing our banking industry, including the wholesale banks that provide project finance throughout the wider MENA region. However, in recent years, in line with the Vision 2030 Plan, Bahrain has sought to diversify its financial sector. We have seen a growing presence of insurance companies and fund managers.
As of November 2009, there were 2,610 authorised funds established in Bahrain managing assets of over nine billion US dollars. While I realize that this is small in comparison with the size of Luxembourg’s fund management industry, this is part of the financial sector that we are seeking to develop further and we expect it to grow rapidly in the coming years.