15th December 2014

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

ANALYSIS: Bahrain's
economic challenges
Bahrain faces a set of
interconnected economic
challenges, from the
question of how to ensure
future growth beyond the
limited oil sector to
complex political-economy
questions about who the
countrys growth and wealth
benefits.
It was the first Gulf state to
discover oil and to start
refining it, and was an early
mover when it came to

UKS MILITARY
DEAL WITH
BAHRAIN
ANALYSIS
The 10th Manama
Dialogue, also known as
the IISS Regional Security
Summit 2014, was held in
the Bahraini capital city of
Manama on December 5-7,
2014, attended by highranking security and military
officials from certain
Western and Arab countries
of the region.

building on its energy

resources. Bahrain built the
first aluminium smelter in
the Gulf, which now
provides the countrys
biggest non-oil goods
exports.
It was also the first Gulf
state to develop a financial
centre, partly thanks to
Lebanese bankers fleeing
their countrys civil war.
Uniquely in the Gulf,
Bahrains single biggest
economic sector is financial
services, not oil and gas.
Read More

On the sidelines of the

event, a new military deal
was signed between the UK
and the government of
Bahrain, which will allow
Britain to establish its first
military base in the Persian
Gulf kingdom. Although the
signing ceremony was held
in presence of the British
Defense Secretary Michael
Fallon, the agreement was
actually signed by the
British Foreign Secretary
Philip Hammond, and
Bahraini Minister of Foreign
Affairs Sheikh Khalid bin
Ahmed Al Khalifa. This
proves that the agreement
not only pursues military
goals, but also political
objectives as well.
Read More

"concentrate on the better

future they aspire to
achieve".

Bahrain convenes
'new-look' parliament
Bahrain's newly elected
parliament has convened
for its first session and the
majorityof seats are filled
with new faces.
Bahrain's King Hamad bin
Salman al-Khalifa officially
opened parliament on
Sunday, telling its members
of the importance of the role
of the youth and to

Countercurrent:
Bahrain Watch: A
STATUS/
Conversation
between Reda alFardan and Mona
Kareem
Reda al-Fardan, the
Bahraini software developer
behind Bahrain Map,
discusses Bahrain Watch's
new Fabrigate project,
which tracks fabrications

This time around, Bahrainis

elected only four candidates
who align themselves with
either Sunni or Shia political
societies; three MPs
representing Sunni political
societies were elected while
the fourth belongs to the Al
Rabitah society, a religious
Shia group. The remaining
36 incoming members of
parliament all ran as
independents.
Read More
that have been published in
local and state-controlled
media. A CPISP recipient,
he received his BA in
Chemical Engineering from
the University of
Cambridge, and his MSc in
Polymer Technology from
Loughborough University.
He was previously a risk
analyst at Gulf International
Bank before joining A.T.
Kearney as a management
consultant in the Gulf
region.
Read more