Hawkamah

Hawkamah’s 3rd regional conference on corporate governance exploring the theme “Is the Region Becoming a Global Player? Corporate Governance & the Financial Crisis”. 

The conference which was held in Doha on 9-10 November 2008, brought together business leaders and policy makers from the Middle East and North Africa, and international and regional experts, and was organized in association with the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) with the support of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA), the Qatar Central Bank, Doha Bank and The group Securities. The event was organised with Hawkamah’s partners, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank (Legal Dept.), Global Corporate Governance Forum, INSOL (insolvency professionals) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Doha was the perfect venue for the launch of Qatar’s to-be-issued Corporate Governance Code which Hawkamah prepared in association with the QFMA. His Excellency Minister Yousef  Hussain Kamal, Minister of Economy and Finance and Chairman of the QFMA delivered a keynote policy speech stressing the urgency of action in improving corporate governance in the GCC countries and the MENA region overall.  Participants acknowledged the important progress achieved in Qatar in streamlining the financial regulatory authorities and developing a Corporate Governance Code in line with international standards and good practices.

The conference discussed critical issues related to corporate governance and the financial crisis, specifically on the potential rise of shareholder activism; optimal regulations for advancing corporate governance; and strategies to involve private equity, future generation funds, and families in the corporate governance movement. The discussion of topical regional issues such as corporate governance for Islamic financial institutions, private equity, sovereign wealth funds, challenges faced by regional families and insolvency and creditor rights generated insights into the unique governance challenges faced by the region.

By all indications, the conference was a success.  Hawkamah’s message reached the Qatari authorities and stakeholders in the country, the region and internationally (represented by the OECD, IFC, IMF, World Bank, INSOL and others) . The conference received great media attention including 10 minutes on prime time news of Al Jazeera and CNBC, and we received only positive feedback from the participants (with some 190 participants over the two days).

On the second day of the conference Hawkamah issued a Doha declaration
Hawkamah 3rd Annual Conference agenda.