Bahrain

The ambassador to the UN from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) told me recently that every government agency in his country has a sustainability plan out to the year 2030. The most significant part of that policy exercise is the fact they need to develop an economy beyond oil - - because they expect to run out of it by then.

Two weeks ago I visited Bahrain, an island in the middle of the Persian Gulf that is widely regarded as the Switzerland of the Middle East. This amazing little country gets only about 15% of its revenues from oil/gas development, so it too is planning for what comes after the Oil Age. With that in mind, Bahrain has encouraged the expansion of financial institutions (probably a good thing given how many are melting down in the US and Europe these days!), but more remarkable is the manufacturing industries that are blooming in the desert by the aquamarine waters of the Gulf.

Will Bahrain be the next China in terms of being both an economic and manufacturing powerhouse? Because everyone there speaks English (thanks to a British colonial history until 1971), will Bahrain be the next tech center to compete with India? Based on the rapid development going on in the country and a lot of "cool" factor - - I witnessed the Formula One Grand Prix race there and a major yacht race is being staged next - - the answer is yes.