MANAMA: Bahrain plans to privatise the country's loss-making carrier Gulf Air within about a year, after its turnaround programme bears fruit, said Economic Development Board chief executive Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa.
Bahrain also plans to privatise other public services, from hospitals to waste management, as it seeks to diversify its economy from oil and build up a viable private sector and a tax-based economy.
Management of the King Hamad Hospital, currently under construction, and of petrol stations owned by Bapco could be tendered to the private sector at the end of the year.
Contracting out management of postal services and waste water treatment was currently under study.
Gulf Air, which said in November it expected making an operating loss of about $500 million in 2009, plans to return to profits by focusing on regional routes and cutting costs.
"The intention is to privatise but if you're going to privatise something, people want something that doesn't have a hundred-tonne anchor weighing it down," Shaikh Mohammed said.
"It will take realistically a year."
The country is also planning to phase out subsidies in the long run to relieve public finances, a sensitive issue that has sparked protests, said Shaikh Mohammed.
Ending petrol subsidies is the biggest bone of contention, and Shaikh Mohammed said these would not be touched any time soon.
"Fuel prices are not going up any time soon," he said.
Bahrain plans to target other subsidies, including on electricity, to only the needy instead of all consumers, but that would be a gradual process taking some years, he added.