Bahrain’s partnership with Amazon Web Services is a vital part of the country’s digital transformation. The Kingdom’s move to the cloud has reduced costs and modernised its digital infrastructure, boosting economic growth and offering new opportunities for innovation and talent development.
In the midst of multiple global transitions, Bahrain’s eyes are firmly on the future of digital transformation.
As part of its Economic Vision 2030, the Kingdom has created successful digital strategies to boost growth and position itself as a global technological hub, but the transformation doesn’t stop there.
These digital transformation strategies rest on the shoulders of Bahrain’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) reputation, which continually seeks to improve the nation’s technological offerings for both businesses and the wider population. The Telecommunications, ICT, and Digital Economy Sector Strategy (2022-2026) defines impressive digital milestones such as total national broadband coverage, upskilling 20,000 citizens to boost cybersecurity capacity, and a 20% growth in ICT startups.
It is through the creation of innovative digital strategies and forward-looking policies, the implementation of cloud services, and partnering with leading global technology companies that has helped Bahrain make significant progress towards achieving its Vision 2030.
Technological giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers an opportunity to further explore Bahrain’s digital transformation strategy, its successes, and how the presence of global tech firms is not only a catalyst for technological advancements and economic diversification, it’s essential for the Kingdom’s continued digital growth.
The Kingdom’s drive for the cloud
As part of its digital transformation strategy, Bahrain has become a cloud-computing pioneer in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA). The implementation of the region’s first nation-wide Cloud-First Policy in 2017 by the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) positioned the Kingdom as a leader in cloud services, attracting Amazon Web Services to establish its first regional data centre in Bahrain. Public cloud spending is expected to grow 14.9 times between 2018 and 2026, one of the highest rates in MENA.
This policy has attracted leading tech firms to set up their operations in Bahrain, including AWS, who launched a Cloud Region in the country in 2019, representing its first in MENA. As part of its collaboration with the Bahraini government, AWS has set up data centres providing cloud services that have allowed the government to migrate approximately 85% of its operations to the cloud, reduce operational costs by 80%, and train more than 500 Bahrainis in cloud computing.
But it is not just the government that is benefiting from cloud-based solutions.
With these data centres forming the backbone of the Kingdom’s cloud-based ecosystem, AWS is helping organisations across Bahrain transition to the cloud and providing significant solutions for startups. These data centres, alongside an AWS Ground Station and two AWS Cloud Innovation Centres are part of the continued growth of Bahrain’s cloud infrastructure and skillsets, demonstrating the positive impact of the partnership across Bahrain’s digital landscape.
Growth and impact across the country
The positive impact of this partnership is already being felt beyond services and solutions: in GDP, job creation and economic growth. Cloud technology and its infrastructure is expected to contribute $1.2bn to the national GDP by 2026, and create nearly 10,000 jobs, with public sector investments also seeing positive results.
The Kingdom has prioritised public-private partnerships in technology to further modernise key sectors, such as financial services, with initiatives that encourage the adoption of emerging and frontier technologies. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where organisations had to adopt new technologies to ensure business continuity, public sector spending on digital solutions has increased. Government bodies such as the iGA have been instrumental in creating initiatives that are beneficial for both providers and users as organisations look to build resilient, digital-first infrastructures.
Investment in FinTech firms and startups that can benefit from digital transformation are already the subjects of various initiatives in the Kingdom. These include Bahrain FinTech Bay, the largest dedicated FinTech hub in the Middle East and Africa, and a Regulatory Sandbox – the first initiative of its kind in the entire region – launched by the Central Bank of Bahrain in 2017. This sandbox allows FinTech firms to test their digital solutions in a safe environment to further digitise the financial sector.
Further innovations in data security, including a personal data protection law, aim to create a regulated environment where data can be stored safely. This continued investment in new initiatives and the strategic growth of the digital sector in Bahrain will not only revolutionise the digital landscape within the Kingdom itself, but will offer tech companies like AWS somewhere to safely scale digital operations.
Creating the right environment
Bahrain’s innovative digital and cloud strategies have allowed for continued growth in the sector, and the nation is ranked first in MENA for ICT readiness. The Kingdom also offers operational savings of up to 28% for ICT companies compared to others in the region, giving key stakeholders the opportunity to create an attractive environment for companies like AWS with mutual benefits.
The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) identifies the sectors that are the most viable for investment, including ICT, which is a key enabler for meeting Bahrain’s digital transformation goals. The development of data centres and cloud services are essential for maximising the growth of other industries, such as manufacturing and tourism, and so attracting a global tech giant like AWS to Bahrain advanced the Kingdom’s overall digitisation strategy. To create the right environment, Bahrain EDB worked with AWS on key drivers for success, including collaborating on the Cloud-First Policy.
For end-users (companies and the wider population of Bahrain) as well as the service providers, iGA’s initiatives, alongside the Cloud-First Policy, have created a country-wide digital landscape primed for growth. By creating policies that encourage innovation in emerging technologies and offering initiatives that recognise the need for investment, Bahrain has built a conducive business environment for innovation to thrive and companies to succeed.
That impact extends beyond the digital landscape, with workforces also benefiting from the presence of AWS. Tamkeen, Bahrain’s Labour Fund, uses investments in talent and upskilling programmes to help businesses and people develop skills that are valuable both locally and globally. Through these initiatives, Bahrainis are equipped to compete in the international job market while creating local employment opportunities that strengthen the economy. Between 2018 and 2022, almost 2,500 public sector employees were given cloud-technology training by AWS through a Tamkeen fund.
Clouding the way forward
Bahrain’s cloud journey has not been without its challenges.
Building an infrastructure that is cloud-ready requires a diverse ecosystem of service providers, policy experts and other partners. The Kingdom’s strategy for digital innovation and growth required a large number of professionals skilled in working with the cloud to ensure that future partners, such as AWS, would have the skills, network availability and infrastructure they need.
Tackling the challenge of network availability led the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) to introduce Bahrain’s fourth National Telecommunication Plan (NTP) in 2016. This plan offered increases in international connectivity, developing wireless infrastructure and better speeds for broadband services to ready the country’s networks for the wider adoption of cloud technologies.
Its success here is highlighted through the Kingdom achieving the world’s highest internet penetration rate – reaching 100% of its population – while maintaining an internet quality 7% above the global average.
Once the infrastructure was in place, overcoming negative perceptions of the cloud was another of the biggest challenges. Initial perceptions saw it as less secure and more expensive than traditional ICT solutions, which led the iGA and Bahrain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to launch national campaigns on cloud awareness to educate potential users on both the advanced security, and long-term saving potential, of the cloud.
Indeed, an ongoing programme launched in 2022 aimed at training 600 employees across 75 governmental and semi-governmental entities in cloud computing by the end of 2024, while the NCSC has undertaken an initiative to provide cybersecurity training for at least 20,000 citizens by 2026.
The future of digital transformation
The operational presence of Amazon Web Services in Bahrain illustrates the success of the Kingdom’s ongoing strategy to transform into a digital economy. Adopting cloud technologies has significantly impacted Bahrain’s business landscape, made it a MENA leader in the digital sector, and allowed the government to modernise its own systems, reduce operational costs and increase the accessibility, safety, and reliability of government services.
Partnerships such as the one between Bahrain and AWS show that a push toward cloud computing benefits not only the service provider, but also the private sector, governmental bodies, and end-users. These collaborations help the workforce to upskill, enable startups to develop and scale their products, and assist public sector organisations in creating robust frameworks for their digital policies.
Ultimately, such partnerships will promote digital development, further employment and learning opportunities for citizens, and help Bahrain to achieve its Vision 2030.