In being among the first of the Gulf states to discover oil and build a refinery, Bahrain established a precedent for shrewdness that it has continued to exhibit.

The island’s oil production never climbed to the heights that its neighbors’ did, but diversification has come to it more naturally than to others. With an increasing focus on petroleum processing and refining, oil still accounts for well over 80% of Bahrain’s budget revenues, but the kingdom has also managed to evolve into an international banking centre, generate rapidly growing tourism that is expected to reach $1 billion by 2020, and a business sector that last year attracted $280 million in foreign investment   from 40 new companies.

This budding expansion is easily explained; Bahrain is streets ahead of other Arab countries in both social and economic policy. More welcoming social policy has accounted in part for its successes in tourism compared with other countries in the region. Moreover, the time taken for a foreign company to establish a business presence in the country is now reported to take only a matter of days. All of this has made for an exciting market in which innovation is being allowed to flourish.

Capitalizing on these advantages, VIVA Bahrain, which entered Bahrain’s commercial telecommunications market in 2010, has emerged as the country’s largest operator. CEO Ulaiyan M. Al Wetaid sees his company’s growth as going hand-in-hand with that of his country: “We leveraged Bahrain’s liberal telecommunications sector, along with its strategic location, to enhance its technological capabilities and help position it on the global stage.” In 2011, VIVA became the first Bahraini operator to provide speeds of up to 42 Mbps, and later led the market in developing its 4G/LTE network, which it launched to in January 2014.

Looking to the future, VIVA’s involvement in the development of Bahrain’s first Cyber Defence Centre will position it as the country’s leading managed security service provider. Wetaid believes that this move typifies his company’s ethos: “This reflects VIVA’s way of thinking. While most would view data protection as a compliance burden, we seized enterprise’s growing dependency on ICT as a business opportunity.” ICT is at the heart of the government’s plans for diversification, and VIVA’s management foresee a bright future. “Bahrain has invested heavily in nurturing the local skill set that it requires to achieve its vision.” Wetaid is similarly optimistic about the country’s hopes for further diversification: “It’s a land of lucrative opportunities waiting to be discovered.”

“This reflects VIVA’s way of thinking. While most would view data protection as a compliance burden, we seized enterprise’s growing dependency on ICT as a business opportunity.”

In addition to its oil and gas industry, Bahrain has become a leading producer of aluminum and now boasts a thriving construction industry. This development has allowed for the expansion of companies like Al Hoty Analytical Services, which was, as Managing Director Redha M. Fathalla says, one of the first contractors to enter Alba’s (Aluminium Bahrain) site providing  geotechnical investigations.

The company has expanded continually since its inception from chemical analysis into testing industrial and construction materials, geotechnical services, calibration and water well drilling. Fathalla says that the company is now focused on honing the many crafts they have adopted over the years: “We are focusing on investing in each function within its own specialised domain,” he says. “It’s not about creating a division to operate at 20% of its potential—we want to go the other 80%.” The company has established a base from which to develop in many different areas and, like Bahrain, is full of the potential to grow in each of them.