People's Daily Online, Manama, December 28 (Reporter Zhang Zhiwen) "Bahrain is one of the important members of the GCC, and there is a broad space for cooperation with China, and Bahrain has always participated in and promoted cooperation with the GCC in China and promoted the negotiation process of the free trade agreement between the two sides. Bahrain hopes to become a bridge between the Gulf region and the world's second largest economy, and to work with all parties to provide more opportunities for GCC cooperation with China. Not long ago, Khalid Humaidan, CEO of the Bahrain Economic Development Commission, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from People's Daily Online that China has a strong economic foundation and has cultivated a large number of powerful enterprises, and Bahrain hopes to cooperate with more Chinese-funded enterprises to find development opportunities that fit each other.
Khalid Humaidan, Chief Executive Officer, Bahrain's Economic Development Council. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
As the only island country in the Gulf region, Bahrain has long pursued a policy of opening up to the outside world and actively promoted economic diversification. In 2018, China and Bahrain signed a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative, promoting new achievements in practical cooperation between the two countries in various fields. In 2022, the bilateral ** amount reached 23600 million US dollars, China is currently Pakistan's third largest partner country and the largest importer. Today, a number of Chinese-funded enterprises continue to actively participate in the construction and investment of infrastructure and livelihood projects in Bahrain, such as energy, housing, communications, and manufacturing, taking advantage of the "Belt and Road" cooperation.
Within the framework of the Economic Vision 2030, Bahrain aims to become a more sustainable and economically diversified country. In recent years, a number of Chinese-funded enterprises such as Huawei, Ningbo Aike Refrigeration, China Construction Group, and Shandong Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd. have invested in Bahrain, and more than 500 Chinese merchants have engaged in wholesale and retail business in Bahrain Dragon City, promoting Bahrain's economic development plan in line with the "Belt and Road" initiative, helping Bahrain's economic diversification, digitalization, and low-carbon transformation, and achieving improved people's livelihood, prosperity and stability.
Bahrain remains open and welcomes Chinese companies to invest. Khalid Humaidan said that over the past few decades, China's economic growth has been impressive, which has laid a solid foundation for China's modernization and development, and also provided a broad space for countries around the world to develop cooperative relations with China. He pointed out that Bahrain continues to improve foreign investment laws and regulations, introduce investment facilitation measures such as ** licenses, continue to optimize the foreign investment environment, and looks forward to extensive exchanges and cooperation with global enterprises, including Chinese enterprises.
In January next year, Gulf Air Bahrain will launch direct flights from Bahrain to Shanghai and Guangzhou, which will be the first time in nearly 15 years that the airline has opened direct flights between the two countries. Khalid Humaidan said that promoting bilateral people-to-people exchanges is of great significance to the development of Pakistan-China relations, "The resumption of direct flights between the two countries will further promote people-to-people exchanges between Pakistan and China, and provide more convenience for economic, trade and tourism cooperation between the two countries." ”