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Manama - A Bahrain-based finance house said on Saturday it would build a $600m tourist resort in the small Gulf kingdom, which is seeking to diversify sources of revenue after running out of oil for export.
"The Areen Desert Resort will include a tourist village and two hotels" among other facilities, Issam Janahi, executive chair of Gulf Finance House, was quoted as saying by the official BNA news agency.
Parts of the resort will be ready next year, but it will take until 2007 for the whole project to be completed, he said.
Gulf Finance House was set up in Bahrain in 1999 by a number of Islamic banks operating here as well as in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
As the only Gulf Arab state to have run out of oil to export, Bahrain has launched a string of ambitious tourism projects topping $2bn to diversify sources of revenue.
The government said last September that Bahrain had attracted 4.6 million visitors in 2002.
