CNN —Like many other Middle Eastern economies, Bahrain has been trying to move away from its dependence on fossil fuels. In 2000, oil and gas made up 44% of its GDP; now that figure is 16%.“Economic diversification is as old as time,” Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Finance and National Economy, told CNN’s Richard Quest at Gateway Gulf, a gathering of business professionals, government officials and investors held this week in the country, under the theme “Investing in a Rapidly Transforming Region.”