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Bahrain: Middle East
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The selection of Bahrain as a regional base for a number of major international corporations attests to the favorable investment environment that Bahrain has created. International investors who set up their operations in Bahrain enjoy the absence of income taxes, the most developed telecommunications infrastructure in the region, liberal economic and social environments and duty-free access to the larger GCC market. Moreover, Bahrain has consistently ranked as the most free economy in the Middle East and the Arab world by the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.
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The islands of Bahrain, set in the middle south of the Persian Gulf, have attracted many invaders in history. The word Bahrain, "Two Seas", means that the islands contain two kinds of water, sweet water springs and salty water in the sea.
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A strategic position between East and West, fertile lands, fresh water, and pearl diving made Bahrain long a center of urban settlement. Pearl diving was the main economy until cultured pearls were invented in early twentieth century and more when oil was discovered in 1930s. About 2300 BC, Bahrain became a centre of one of the ancient empires trading between Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and the Indus Valley (now in Pakistan and India). This was the civilization of Dilmun (sometimes transliterated Telmun) that was linked to the Sumerian Civilization in the third millennium BC. Bahrain became part of the Babylonian empire about 600 BC. Historical records referred to Bahrain with names such as the "Life of Eternity", "Paradise", and Eden.
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This is especially true for the less powerful states that have high percentage of Shi'as, such as Kuwait and Bahrain. These fears stem from a mix of Iranian regional ambitions, which leads Tehran to pursue a more aggressive foreign policy, and Iran's support for Shi'a groups in the wider Middle East area. Furthermore, in the earlier years of the "Islamic Revolution Era," Iran worked to "export the revolution" and used political violence in the Gulf to stir up riots and to punish those Arab states that allied with Baghdad in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988.
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[D]espite the extensive expansion projects and the turmoil this has bought to the island, the potential for Bahrain to not only become a major financial harbour but ... a hot tourist destination is limitless. In 5 to 10 years Bahrain will not be recognizable from the Bahrain that you see today and providing that the authorities make sure all the rubble and rubbish is cleared up after the construction projects have been finished, Bahrain could easily rival Dubai as one of the hottest tourist location in the Middle East.
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More and more visitors from across the Middle East are flocking to the Kingdom of Bahrain. As airline seats and hotels are getting booked up, the Kingdom is increasingly becoming the GCC families' choice of destination for this year's Eid Al Fitr with recently opened tourist attractions such as the Lost Paradise of Dilmun Water Park (Lost Paradise) boosting Bahrain's tourism.
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