Bahrain and other Gulf economies can help the world weather the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa said.

'We must take heart from the fact that some emerging economies around the world - particularly the Gulf and the Middle East - are resilient,' he said, according to a report in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

The world is interconnected as never before, and this gives us the opportunity to be more balanced than we have been in generations, perhaps more than at any other time in our history, Shaikh Salman said in a speech at Waseda University in Japan.

The Deputy Supreme Commander and Economic Development Board chairman pointed out that what began last year as the sub-prime crisis, then became the 'credit crunch', has now developed into a situation that investment guru and the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, has referred to as 'the biggest financial meltdown in American history'.

'We should not forget that the world is not the same place it was 80 years ago, when the Wall Street crash led to the Great Depression.

'Nor is it the same place as it was 12 years ago when the Asian financial crisis hit closer to home.'

He pointed out that the global economy is evolving and no longer centred in one or two limited hubs.

The GCC has fortunately been insulated from the worst of these troubles, and managed to grow and prosper.

The IMF also recently predicted that Bahrain and other GCC economies will continue to grow at an average seven per cent in the next year, he said.

'So, I would like to see us work together to build on our individual strengths and successes - bringing out the best in one other,' the Crown Prince said.

'Remember, we all have the collective responsibility to make this a better world.' - TradeArabia News Service