Bahrain's highly competitive economy has enabled the country to escape the worst effects of the global economic downturn in 2008-2009, according to a report by Euromonitor International.

'The government will push ahead with its plans to diversify the economy away from an over reliance on oil,' the report said.

'Bahrain's attractiveness stems from an open policy to foreign investment, liberal trade policies and a light tax system. New labour regulations for expatriate workers attempt to rebalance the country's workforce.

'Bahrain offers a stable investment climate and the strength of the country's business environment is a big factor in convincing investors to set up in Bahrain.

'According to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2010 report, Bahrain ranked 20th among the 183 countries and it is the highest ranked Middle Eastern country when it comes to closing a business,' it said.

'Bahrain's tax system is ranked highly in the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 report where it is 13th out of 183 countries,' it adds.

'It takes only 36 hours per year for an enterprise to prepare, file and pay taxes with a total of 25 payments per year, way below the average time taken in the rest of the Middle East and North Africa region of 204 hours and the OECD average of 194 hours,' the report said.-TradeArabia News Service