HE SH. Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance and National Economy, participates in Peace to Prosperity workshop panel alongside Finance Ministers

Manama, June 26 (BNA): His Excellency Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance and National Economy, today participated alongside United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin, the Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, and the Minister of State for Financial Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, His Excellency Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, in a panel discussion at the Peace to Prosperity workshop. The panel was entitled ‘Economic Transformation: A Conversation with Ministers of Finance’. During the panel session, His Excellency welcomed all visitors to the Kingdom of Bahrain and to the Peace to Prosperity workshop, hosted in partnership with the United States. HE emphasised that the workshop has represented a critical opportunity to advance discussions on the economic future of the Palestinian people and the region, pointing out that prosperity, hope and opportunity are vital foundations of lasting peace. Commenting on the region’s economic reform journey, HE noted that, through visionary leadership, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain identified an opportunity to generate sustainable growth by creating environments for the private sector to thrive while also transitioning the role of governments into a regulator and partner. His Excellency added that governance needs to be partnered with the right infrastructure, pointing out that private capital can play an important role in accelerating infrastructure development. In this regard, His Excellency expanded on the key lessons learnt from Bahrain’s economic diversification programme, stressing the need to enable new entrants to compete against existing businesses and emphasising the Kingdom’s ‘Team Bahrain’ approach, which has resulted in a seamless integration of government entities and private enterprise. His Excellency concluded by emphasising that while the region has been blessed with natural resources in the form of hydrocarbons, its most valuable resource and the strongest driver of transformational development is its people.