Minister of Energy His Excellency Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza opened a ‘Risk management in institutions’ symposium on March 31 at the Bahrain Society of Engineers (BSE), organized by the society in cooperation with NOGA in the presence of a number of attendees from various organizations, oil specialists, industrial bodies, financial companies and institutions as well as representatives of ministries and government offices related to risk management in the Kingdom of Bahrain.



In his opening speech, the Minister pointed out that it was a timely and important seminar considering the huge fluctuations in the global economic scene, and looming risk factors. He expressed delight that the seminar fulfilled the purpose of preparing institutions to cope with risks and adopt flexibility, dealing with them and raising awareness about priorities and figuring out ways and mechanisms to prepare risk management of various kinds.



The Minister said that risk management and business flexibility were two different aspects and were interdependent. He urged organizations to seek to monitor, analyze and exchange research finding that help in drawing plans and strategies to mitigate the risks faced according to the size, quick processing and clever techniques leading to speedy results, stressing that the key to mitigate these risks was in a partnership between the public and private sectors where innovation and working partnerships would help implement business flexibility and risk management to improve and deal with various challenges. The Minister cited many examples in this regard from major risks critical in infrastructure and electronic attacks and sudden power outage and other events that occur on wider range. The Minister also underlined the NOGA role in the oil and gas sector. He said risk management and business flexibility contributed to the preparation of development plans and programs and to meet any challenges and risks in the oil and gas sector companies in Bahrain.



H.E. Dr. Mirza referred to the findings of the Ministerial Meeting of the Electricity and Water Ministers in the GCC countries, which was held in Bahrain in September 2013 in which he proposed a discussion on the GCC water link project, as well as emergency situations that may arise in the event of pollution which could affect the Arabian Gulf due to events such as nuclear radiation, water pollution resulting from the potential of nuclear reactor accidents from neighboring countries, oil spill caused by the wars that may occur in the region and natural disasters, including climate change. He expressed happiness that such moves were welcomed as it reflected the cooperation between the GCC governments to manage future risks and ensure business continuity.



Engineer Jimmy Rhodes from the British Emergency Planning College spoke about the concept of risk management and global best practices. Engineer Hassan Al Alawi, Director of Risk Management in nogaholding also spoke at the symposium about risk management and business flexibility in the oil and gas sector. Another speaker was Mr. Hani Khabaje , specialist in strategies and risk management who provides consultancy services to companies in the GCC countries in the field of risk management, especially those with a financial management portfolio.