Bahraini economy has sufficient flexibility to overcome the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis, Bahraini businessman Khalid Al Amin has said, the GDN reported today.

Expressing his belief that the economy will recover quickly once the precautionary measures imposed by the government in view of the pandemic outbreak is eased, Mr Al Amin pointed out that the integration of the Bahraini economy and its openness to the economies of the region and the world makes the acceleration of this recovery also linked to actions taken by other countries.

He was speaking during the online Economic Recovery forum organised by Proact International Consultancy.

The event saw participation of a group of economists and businessmen who discussed the path of recovery in sectors like banking, health, nutrition, tourism, hotels, technology, communications and media.

Proact chief executive Dr Khaled Bomtaia said speakers also reviewed investment opportunities and methods to meet the challenges and encourage the innovation required by the next stage.

Journalist Ibrahim Al Tamimi said that Covid-19 presents an opportunity to adopt new methods like distance education, social communication and others.

The crisis has demonstrated once again the cohesion and solidarity of Bahraini society, noting that post-coronavirus economic recovery is linked to a large extent to the timing of eliminating the virus or controlling it, he added.

Dr Faisal Al Nasser, head of the Home Health Care Centre, emphasised that the epidemic has changed many concepts among people and governments, especially health services.

“Some of these variables that occurred impose new priorities and establish how different health services are expected to be in the post-pandemic phase, and this necessarily reflects on the prospects and opportunities for investment in the health field,” Dr Al Nasser added.

Administrative consultant Mohamed Issa said, “After this crisis, I hope that the convictions of boards and executives will change regarding investment in information systems and infrastructure in order to develop and sustain the business of their companies, whether in times of stress or in prosperity. It has been found that the companies that previously invested in this field, was able to increase its sales and market share and strengthen its reputation, unlike companies that used to view information systems as unnecessary expenses and do not have lucrative financial returns, and this is something I will highlight in the working paper that I present at the forum.”

Nabil Al Mahmoud reviewed a paper titled, “The impact of the coronavirus crisis on micro, small and medium enterprises”, that discussed the results of a survey conducted in Bahrain on the impact of this crisis on these facilities to measure the impact of the MSMEs during the first quarter of 2020 of this crisis, and measure the readiness of these facilities for such crises, in addition to knowing its priorities of the support provided and expected from the concerned authorities. The paper also presented solutions to reduce the repercussions of this pandemic on this category of facilities.