Bahrain on Monday became the first country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to sign a landmark housing project agreement to be carried out in partnership with private sector.

The Housing Ministry signed the Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with the Kingdom based real estate and infrastructure development company Nassej to construct 4,100 affordable housing units.

"This agreement is considered the biggest of its kind in the Ministry's history in terms of the number of housing units to be built in partnership with the private sector, as part of a series of innovative solutions through which the Ministry aims to reduce waiting lists and shorten the period of time between application for and the delivery of a housing unit," said Housing Minister Basim Bin Yacob Al Hamer.

He said the agreement with Nassej will help construct 4,100 social housing units in the Northern City Project, Al Buhair Housing Project and Al Lawzi Project, at a cost of 208 million Bahraini dinar (about 550 million U.S. dollars).

The cooperation between the government and the private sector in infrastructure projects was one of the recommendations of the national dialogue held in July last year.