The blog post I’m writing today will be about Bahrain. Being
that I had never heard of the country until today, I figured none of you have
either. So, I’ve decided to write a brief summary of the country's geography and population so that there’s a
better understanding of the information forth coming from the article. Bahrain is an Arabian
constitutional monarchy that is located in the Persian Gulf. It consists of a
main island and is surrounded by a small chain of islands that lay around it.
The island is located between the Qatar peninsula and the eastern coast of
Saudi Arabia. It is the third smallest nation in Asia, only 780 kilometers in
size, with a population of 1,234,571 people. It has a high Human Development
Index rating of 0.824, and is regarded as a high-income economy. The reason I
mentioned some of this is to give a scope of how much of an impact FDI can have
on such a small nation.
Recently, through government intervention, Bahrain has had an increase FDI and the real estate market of the country has gone through a positive upswing. The increase of the countries real estate market has encouraged the increase of retail space and goods. By 2020, there should be over 455,000 square meters of new retail space. The confidence of these logistics is based in the new projects of 21 retailers that have combined over $734.5 million into the growing market of retail. Bahrain will also be home to the Gulf’s largest IKEA, that will be opened at a cost of $47 million and will create 600 jobs. The entire country is going through an economic upswing and it’s markets will likely continue to grow. $734.5 million is a lot of money, but when it's being invested in a nation that is roughly ten times smaller than the U.S, you can imagine how that kind of investment will have a greater impact.
Source: Bahrain set to see $734m retail space boom
by 2020.” ArabianBusiness.com,
www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/retail/382952-bahrain-set-to-see-734m-retail-space-boom-by-2020.
I have not heard of Bahrain before either! It says that 78,015 sq m of new retail space is expected to be delivered across Bahrain this year - have you heard anything about this in particular? Are they close to this number for new retail space or are the running behind?
ReplyDeleteI have heard about Bahrain before, but I have to admit - never in an economic context. Interesting, that IKEA is with $47 million more than $10 million higher than the average investment of $34.98. Is IKEA the largest project in Bahrain in the retail sector? Are there total numbers for jobs being created?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting blog post. I had heard of Bahrain before but I did not know of the major economic and political developments that were happening. I was surprised to see that the IKEA alone was expected to bring in 600 jobs. It will be interesting to see how this expansion effects Bahrain over the next few years.
ReplyDeleteI have not heard of this country before either. It is really exciting to see that this country is uping its FDI and economy by creating new retail space. and add the fact that the real estate industry is soaring. this country is defiantly a country to keep an eye on for the future.
ReplyDelete