Bahrain is in advanced talks for investment deals with cloud computing companies from the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates, an Economic Development Board executive said, as the country seeks to diversify its oil-based economy.
Cloud computing and foreign direct investment are key planks of Bahrain’s economic recovery programme that aims to grow non-oil gross domestic product by 5% this year and includes $30 billion in strategic projects.
The plans come as regional economic heavyweights Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also banking on technology to diversify their oil-dependent economies.
Saudi Aramco Development Co, a subsidiary of oil behemoth Aramco (2222.SE), has teamed up with Google Cloud to offer cloud services to customers in Saudi Arabia. The UAE is opening three Amazon Web Services (AWS) centres this year.
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