Boursa Kuwait Vice Chairman and CEO, Khaled Abdulrazzaq Alkhaled: The change in legislation signifies that Kuwait is on a path of much-needed economic diversification

Boursa Kuwait participates in 8th Euromoney Conference

Kuwait, September 29, 2016

Boursa Kuwait participated at the 8^th Euromoney conference that was held on 27^th September, 2016 at the JW Marriott – Kuwait City. The conference themed ‘Meeting the Challenge of Financial Innovation and Reform’ addressed challenges and opportunities facing the Kuwaiti economy in an era of global uncertainties. Boursa Kuwait Vice Chairman and CEO, Mr. Khaled Abdulrazzaq AlKhaled, highlighted the company’s role in developing the overall financial market status and upgrading standards of the capital markets to the international level.  

Mr. AlKhaled commenced by highlighting the objective behind the establishment of Boursa Kuwait and the role it plays in the wider national vision for the State of Kuwait. Alkhaled said: “Boursa Kuwait was founded in April, 2014 by the Capital Markets Authority Commissioners’ Council resolution No. 37/2013 dated 11/20/2013 and permeable to Law No. (7/2010), to replace the Kuwait Stock Exchange. The company’s strategy focuses on a) creating a competitive securities exchange at the regional level by creating an attractive issuer base and broadening the investor base, and b) upgrading the standards of the capital markets to the international level by increasing depth and breadth of products, developing the stock exchange infrastructure and upgrading the stock exchange business environment.”

On the impact of the privatization of the stock exchange on the financial market, AlKhaled said: “The change in legislation signifies that Kuwait is on a path of much-needed economic diversification, which was made all the more obvious by the recent decline in oil prices over the last year. Moreover; it is imperative to note that there is value in the non-oil private sector that needs a supporting legislature to allow it to reach its full potential, and that is what we are seeing now with the privatization of Kuwait Stock Exchange.”

By driving this strategy forward; Boursa Kuwait aims to enhance the current level of performance of the exchange, achieve emerging market status and enable the market to compete with regional peers; ultimately building a market that reflects the strength, depth and flexibility of the Kuwaiti private sector.

Since it officially assumed responsibilities of the stock exchange in April, 2016, Boursa Kuwait has come a long way and was able to address some of the challenges and weaknesses it identified during the planning phase. Its approach focused mainly on delivering and reinforcing transparency, whereby it launched the Company Information Portal (CIP), a tool designed by Boursa Kuwait, with the aim of providing a credible and updated information platform for all listed companies, which can be used as a reference site by all stakeholders. This was followed by the upgrade of its Financial Data Service available on the exchange website, which was rolled out over two phases, in affiliation with Thomson Reuters and the replacement of KARS with Market View; a new page on the exchange website where clients can view all previous day disclosure changes and automation of submitting financial statements for disclosure purposes.

This marks only the start for Boursa Kuwait and the change it plans to bring about. With a firm and steady approach, Boursa Kuwait will work towards not only improving market status on a business level, but rather to engage the nation as a whole, by raising awareness and educating all segments and engaging our nation as a whole, to support the development of our economy on all fronts. 

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For more information on Boursa Kuwait please visit www.kuwaitse.com.

© Press Release 2016