Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance (Hawkamah), a subsidiary of the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority, announced today that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amsterdam Institute of Finance (AIF) to actively promote and improve corporate governance practices in MENA region, through the provision of financial training.
The main objectives of the Memorandum are to:
- Improve corporate governance practices in private and public sector entities, including listed companies, banks and financial institutions, family-owned enterprises, small and medium enterprises and state-owned enterprises.
- Help develop national legal and regulatory frameworks, in cooperation with both the public and private sectors.
- Cooperate on corporate governance institution-building, develop a communication strategy, and train and develop investors, directors, managers and other stakeholders on good corporate governance.
Hawkamah and AIF will also cooperate on specific projects across the MENA region such as
- Establishing a Hawkamah Institute of Directors
- Organising annual conferences and seminars to promote and increase knowledge of corporate governance
- Developing a network of corporate governance academic experts
- Encouraging further research on the technical and practical aspects of corporate governance
- Establishing national corporate governance task forces to raise awareness of corporate governance
Dr. Nasser Saidi, Executive Director of Hawkamah, said: “This alliance is another significant step in achieving Hawkamah’s region-wide goals, reinforcing our commitment to support open and transparent markets as well as relevant and enforceable corporate governance regimes. The collaboration enables Hawkamah to draw upon Amsterdam Institute of Finance’s solid expertise in financial training, which not only helps to further raise awareness of corporate governance across the Middle East and North Africa, but also equips the region’s leaders and managers with the essential tools required to enable their businesses to compete even more effectively on the world stage.”
Dr. Andre Van Iersel, Chairman of the Board of Amsterdam Institute of Finance, commented:“Amsterdam Institute of Finance fully supports Hawkamah’s ambitions to establish a sound regulatory framework, which will undoubtedly attract further investment to the region, and we are very focused on making a contribution to this initiative,. As a major banking hub at the heart of the MENA region, the DIFC provides the ideal platform for us to provide financial training and develop local skills and capabilities. We are certain that businesses operating across the region will benefit from this partnership and we look forward to working together on the numerous projects that we have planned with Hawkamah.”
Hawkamah is an autonomous, regional entity whose mission is to assist countries and companies of the wider MENA region in developing sound and globally well-integrated corporate governance frameworks and practices.
