This is a big handicap, according to the insider. Alwazzan thinks that the authorities are keen to apply greater transparency to business operations, while simultaneously making the country more inviting to corporations. The government is encouraging competition by easing the rules that cover operating a business in Bahrain. We are also experiencing greater transparency in commercial life. For example, the Ministry of Commerce stipulates that each listed firm must produce audited accounts twice a year, and unaudited accounts with the same frequency.
Investors have confidence that things are on the right track.
Members of the Institute of Banking and Finance channel the equivalent of one per cent of their annual staff salaries to a professional training centre designed to enhance the skills of employees. Some 90 per cent of bank managers in Bahrain are nationals. Local bias One industry source confided to Gulf Business that tenders for state-run schemes are skewered in favour of firms with a high proportion of Bahrainis in their workforce. Companies award contracts to firms with the highest percentage of nationals on their payrolls. Every time we tender for government projects, we attach our payroll breakdown.