Bahrain grants US sovereignty of US users’ data in kingdom’s cloud computing centres

Washington, Mar. 4 (BNA): The Kingdom of Bahrain has granted the United States sovereignty over the data of its US beneficiaries on Bahrain-based data centres. The decision was made on the sidelines of the visit of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to the United States. The Chief Executive of the Bahrain Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA), Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, affirmed that this decision is based on the Cloud Computing Services Law in Bahrain, Law 56, of 2018, that permits the access of foreign parties to cloud computing services. Al Qaed stated that this step contributes to the creation of a favourable environment for foreign investment in the Kingdom. Al Qaed stressed that the government has adopted the Cloud-First policy with the aim of channeling investment in the Kingdom in the fields of technology and cloud computing to enhance the ICT sector. He explained that the Kingdom remains keen to create knowledge and experience-sharing partnerships, while adopting the latest modern technologies to ensure the provision of highly efficient services.