• Home
• /
• Local business

GCC Urged to Speed Up Corporate Governance

They also called for the six member states to draw up a common framework of rules and legislations for corporate governance. The first GCC Conference on Corporate Governance was inaugurated by Sayyid Ali bin Hamoud al Busaidi, Minister of the Diwan of Royal Court, in the presence of several other ministers and dignitaries. Key officials from the government and private sectors in the Gulf states are participating in the two-day meeting organised by Oman’s Capital Market Authority, or CMA, and the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, or OCCI, with support from the GCC secretariat-general.

“The GCC states are doing very well.Studies have found that some 50 per cent of companies have implemented corporate governance principles. We expect this to reach 85 per cent in the next three years,” Dr Adnan Ahmed Yousuf, Chairman of Arab Banking Union, one of the two keynote speakers, said.

He noted that good corporate governance was vital to attract foreign direct investment, especially in the backdrop of the global economic meltdown. Hence, the GCC must “adopt corporate governance in a more serious way.We expect a major improvement in this regard in the coming years,” he added.

Dr Nasser al Saeedy, Chief of Economic Affairs, Dubai International Financial Centre, the other keynote speaker, said that corporate governance was important not only for individual companies, but also for the whole economic system. Authorities in the GCC states, he added, must ensure that corporate governance principles were more rigid and applied “soundly and adequately.”

Yahya Said Abdullah al Jabri, Executive President of CMA, earlier stressed the important role of board of directors of companies in making sure that the rights of shareholders were safeguarded. He also called for closer co-operation between the public and private sectors in promoting corporate governance , adding that CMA strove to encourage Oman’s companies to adopt sound corporate governance principles.

Khalil Abdullah al Khonji, Chairman of OCCI, said that there was a need to enhance transparency and disclosures to “eradicate corruption and bad management.” The conference was a reflection of the “collective effort” by the GCC countries to enhance standard of corporate governance in the region.

· ravindranath@khaleejtimes.com