Every single GCC member was represented in the top 20 most financially attractive cities in the world, according to AIRINC’s latest Global 150 Cities Index. The index ranks 150 of the top global locations according to financial attractiveness and lifestyle attractiveness. It combines local salary levels, tax rates, living costs, and living conditions to assess how appealing each location is to live in.
Bahrain’s capital Manama was named the most financially attractive city in the world, followed by Riyadh in 4th place, Kuwait City in 6th, Abu Dhabi in 7th, Dubai in 12th, and Muscat in 16th. The data is collected by AIRINC’s own in-house survey team, who continuously research the costs and living conditions of many cities around the world to evaluate international mobility.
GCC economies have invested considerable sums in making themselves more attractive to international businesses in line with ambitious region-wide economic diversification efforts. As the first GCC member to begin diversification, the Kingdom of Bahrain offers one of the easiest and most cost-effective environments to set up and operate a business in the world. Businesses operating in the Kingdom enjoy 0% tax and 100% foreign ownership allowed.
Thanks to its comprehensive programme of reforms, increasingly digital Bahrain was recently named the fourth most improved economy in the world by the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business report. As well as ranking first in the world for financial attractiveness in the AIRINC index, Manama also jumped 15 places for overall attractiveness, to 48th.
