The Middle East’s rapidly advancing space sector has seen a slew of landmark achievements in the last few years. By Alexander Hendry In 2014, the UAE established the UAE Space Agency to oversee and grow its space sector, and it has since successfully completed numerous projects. In July 2020, it became the fifth country in … Continue Reading
The updates are part of SAMA’s efforts to promote an innovation-based financial technology ecosystem in the KSA. By Salman Al-Sudairi, Brian A. Meenagh, and Homam Khoshaim Last month, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) issued an update to the recently implemented Payment Services Provider Regulations (PSPR), which was introduced in January 2020 to regulate Payment … Continue Reading
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is home to 14 of the 33 most water scarce countries globally, with six times less water availability than the worldwide average and less than 2 percent of the world’s renewable water supply. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia … Continue Reading
For the past few decades, the obligations of companies with losses reaching 50% or more of their share capital has been a topic of high debate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That is due to the uncertainty surrounding the application of Articles 148 and 180 of the current Companies Law (Current Companies Law), which … Continue Reading
Saudi Arabia’s recently announced plans to privatise several key industries in the Kingdom has once again brought the Kingdom’s privatisation agenda back into the spotlight. The announcements form part of the countries transformational initiatives as part of The 2016-2020 National Transformation Plan (NTP) to improve public sector efficiency and boost non-oil revenues in the region, … Continue Reading
Outsourcing has historically not been a major pillar in Middle East public and private sector organisation’s strategic architecture. While the benefits of outsourcing are understood and recognised, organisations have sought to engage with major outsourced service providers through managed service agreements and joint ventures. This approach has generally worked well. It has enabled local organisations … Continue Reading
The continuing strong economic conditions of the UAE and other GCC economies has led to an upsurge in consumer spending in recent years. With retail sales in the region expected to reach US$284.5 billion by 2018, the need to meet the growing demand for consumer goods has led to a boom in planned shopping mall … Continue Reading
An unexpected surge in production coupled with weakened global demand has resulted in a 50 percent drop in the price of crude oil since June 2014 and currently averaging US$50 a barrel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced it would leave market forces to determine crude oil price and would not cut … Continue Reading
A number of GCC governments, including those in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have set ambitious clean energy and energy efficiency targets. As the fastest growing region in the world, the GCC’s population is expected to grow more than 53 million by 2020. Substantial amounts of investments will be required to finance the clean energy … Continue Reading
The MSCI upgrade of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to “emerging market’ status marked the beginning of increasingly liberalised GCC stock exchanges. Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, the Tadawul, is by far the largest securities exchange in the GCC by market capitalisation. It is also the most liquid in terms of daily trading volumes and … Continue Reading
Global cyber-attack threats stand at the highest ever recorded level, jumping 14 percent from 2012 to 2013 (Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report). Furthermore, a recent Microsoft Security Intelligence Report found that operating system infection rates in the GCC countries were almost twice the worldwide average, with up to 13 computers out of every 1,000 being … Continue Reading
Following last month’s announcement by the Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (the CMA) of its proposal to permit participation by qualified financial institutions directly on the Kingdom’s stock exchange (the Tadawul), the CMA has now published its Draft Rules for public consultation. The Draft Rules include detailed provisions relating to qualified foreign investor (QFI) eligibility, … Continue Reading
In a long anticipated measure, the Saudi Council of Ministers (which is the highest authority in the Kingdom) issued a resolution on 21 July, 2014 authorizing foreign financial institutions to directly buy and sell stocks listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). The resolution also authorized the Saudi Capital Market Authority (the “CMA”) to set … Continue Reading
The Sukuk Opportunity Total Sukuk issuances for 2013 stood at approximately US$120 billion and the Sukuk market is likely to sustain double-digit growth in the coming two to three years with assets in Islamic finance expected to reach US$2.8 trillion by 2015. The growth of the Sukuk market has allowed investors to diversify their portfolio … Continue Reading
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries accounted for IPO issuances valued at US$1.1 billion in 2013, according to Bloomberg. Notably, Qatar Exchange bounced back this year with the successful IPO and listing of Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding company Q.S.C. (a Qatar Petroleum Subsidiary), the first IPO in Qatar since 2010 and the first under the current … Continue Reading
With investment pouring into the education sector, academic institutions have never been in a stronger position to capitalise on costly real estate assets to fuel future expansion. Research suggests the public and private education market in MENA is projected to be worth US$96 billion by 2015, with the GCC region claiming US$61 billion of that … Continue Reading
Digital Identity Dominates Having a digital identity for online browsing, transactions and interactions has become necessary to operate in this information age. As more and more lifestyle and business services shift to the digital platform, there has been an explosive growth in personal data capture. The “Big Data” phenomenon has the potential to transform, innovate … Continue Reading
The global financial crisis and credit crunch prompted the Capital Markets Authority in Saudi Arabia (the “CMA”) to introduce rules to increase investor awareness of public company financial difficulties. In May 2013, the CMA published draft guidelines and instructions setting out certain rules that apply to public companies when the losses of a public company … Continue Reading
