Bahrain focus

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Workers on the US $16 million Zallaq bridge. When complete, it will extend the masterplan of Bahrain further to the south.

Few countries have benefited from the strengthening political confidence and increased commercial activity in the Gulf more than Bahrain.

Ever since the Lebanese Civil War drove out Beirut's large banking sector, the archipelago has enjoyed a reputation as a strong financial centre. And buoyed by strong communication and transport facilities, numerous multinationals have set up in Bahrain.

While 60% of the country's exports stem from petroleum production and refining, which accounts for 11% of GDP, Bahrain, like Dubai is diversifying its economy to reduce its dependence on oil (as the first state to exploit its resources in the 1930s, Bahrain will be the first member of the GCC to run out of oil). This was highlighted in August 2006, when Bahrain and the US implemented a free-trade agreement, the first between the US and a Gulf state. Financial and construction sectors are big parts of this. And Bahrain has a national ambition to strengthen and consolidate its position as a financial hub of the Middle East by 2030.

To do this, however, the country is acutely aware of the ramifications of growth, especially if it has not been planned properly. As a result of earlier expansion in the country, the government of Bahrain has committed itself to a strategy of support with several key initiatives being taken to lend encouragement to current and future developments. Principle among these actions has been the drafting of a National Planning Development Strategy, or ‘National Plan'.

Completed in December 2006, the plan provides strong and clear guidance on 10 key strategies that will support the future development of Bahrain. These include the built environment, infrastructure, transport and the environment.

"In this region, particularly in Bahrain, we have fragmentation," says Dominic Mc Polin, executive coordinator, Office of the Minister, Ministry of Works & Housing. "The private sector is booming and the finance is in place to support private sector expansion, but the mechanics are quite difficult. So we have a philosophy that all infrastructure has to be integrated.

"Everyone knows this, everyone talks about this, but when you actually go on site - Dubai or anywhere - you will see a lack of integration," he adds.

What this plan suggests is that the government has accepted that clear implementation processes need to be in place and it has to adopt a change in the way it supports private sector developments. Too often, Mc Polin says, projects in Bahrain have been conducted in an insular fashion, being self-contained and highly specific in their concept. This has meant that some developments have evolved and placed undue strain on an unprepared infrastructure. This is characterised by sporadic demands for infrastructure, leading to uneconomical and fragmented responses by the authorities. It has been suggested that because of the lack of a centrally coordinated approval process and the absence of coordinated infrastructure policy, ongoing public infrastructure problems remain (see box - Al Areen).

But central to the government's aim of implementing the National Plan is a central planning unit (CPU). The body has adopted a policy of integration, seeking to form bonds between government ministries, non-ministerial government bodies, developers, private utility companies, the people of Bahrain and other stakeholders.

"This is a new form of consultancy in my opinion, and one that is of vital importance to the region," says Mc Polin. Where CPU differs, he says, is its emphasis on an integrated engineering infrastructure, which is such a departure from the conventional approach, that it can barely be considered under the same umbrella. "It isn't an organisation so much as a business model," he adds.

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