Improving Kuwait's business environment in the making

Permanent Committee for Streamlining Business Environment made major steps towards improving business media in the country, Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau (KFIB) Director General Sheikh Dr. Mishaal Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said Monday.
The Committee is currently working on a number of proposals in this regard, in leeway to present it to the Government in the near future, Sheikh Mishaal noted while addressing the first session of the GCC governance conference. The session dealt with significance of applying governance standards and effect of the global financial crisis on monitoring and legislation perspectives in the region.
Sheikh Mishaal said that the executive bylaw for Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA) will be announced in November, which would contribute in achieving the Authority's objectives, especially the ones on utilizing modern technology and creating job opportunities for nationals.
On governance, he pointed out that a successful one should be linked to serious interaction between the government and private sectors, and their will to establish ground when dealing with fragile transparency and weak internal monitoring systems.
On his part, Dr. Yilmaz Arguden, chairman of Rothschild investment bank in Turkey, said that governance is "considerate" to all parties with interests, stressing the need to have a monitoring instrument on account management departments in financial institutions.
Arguden, also member of the UN Global Compact, also underlined necessity to monitor, follow up and then hold accountable all boards responsible for such wrongdoings.
Meanwhile, Hamed Sultan Al-Busaidi, representative of Oman Capital Markets Authority's CEO, said that it was about time to apply the concept of governance in GCC countries as an executive means to explore an alternative and investment-attracting economy.
In his speech, Al-Busaidi noted significance of separating 'the board' and the executive management in order to apply sound governance.
Governance 'casually' refers to all processes of governing, whether undertaken by a government, market or network, whether over a family, tribe, formal or informal organization or territory and whether through laws, norms, power or language. It relates to the processes of interaction and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions. On his part, Hawally Governor Lieutenant General (ret.) Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Sabah said that of the major challenges facing Kuwait is the extent of adaptation between economic legislations and the business environment.
In his speech at the conference, which opened earlier today and lasts for three days under the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Sheikh Ahmad commended "great" efforts exerted by monitoring bodies in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), which are channeled towards improving legislations and promoting them to global standards as means to support markets and raise level of competiveness through the application of governance.
"The conference displays the strategic goal of finding means to overcome challenges in face of adopting governance standards in GCC countries, especially Kuwait, which aspires to turn into a commercial and financial hub." On her part, former Kuwaiti minister of commerce and industry Dr. Amani Bouresli said the conference, which is held under the title "need to design GCC governance standards," underlines importance of such approach, as it discusses most effective governance tools and mechanisms suitable to be adopted in the Gulf area.
Meanwhile, chairman of commissioners' board of Kuwait Capital Markets Authority Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf said a "clear" governance culture should be at hand, especially by traders and those concerned, due to the great benefit and fruitful outcome of translating such culture on ground.
"Governance meets the needs of a prudent and rational management that takes it upon itself to protect shareholders' rights and promotes mutual responsibility between boardrooms and executive departments to maximize returns, comply with laws and regulations and to avoid high-risk exposures," he noted.