DAVOS: Bahrain is the only country so far that has implemented a data-sovereignty law, as it lays the groundwork for startups in tech-driven market sectors, Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, the country’s minister of finance and national economy, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.
The government has developed regulations and infrastructure for technologies, and invested in people and higher education to create a fertile environment for entrepreneurs and foreign capital, he added.
In 2018, Bahrain became the first country to implement a “Data Embassy” law that allows foreign institutions to store their data under the jurisdiction of their home countries while it is hosted by data centers in Bahrain.
This means, for example, that a German company’s data hosted in Bahrain is subject to German law and can only be accessed by other parties through a German court order, the minister explained.
“Bahrain has led the world in regulation,” he said. “We are, and continue to be, the only country in the world with a data sovereignty law … This is groundbreaking stuff. You need to have laws and regulations that are ahead, and a regulatory environment where it’s easy to do business.”
