Adopting the Governance Standards: UAE leading the way in Middle East

United Arab Emirates is showing all positive signs of having bouncing back after the Covid-19 pandemic, as it leads the Middle East region nations in adopting the governance standards in the corporate field. This has been highlighted by Dr. Ashraf Gamal El-Din, CEO of the Hawkamah Institute of Corporate Governance, that is affiliated with the Dubai International Financial Center.

Dr. Ashraf Gamal El Din, CEO of Hawkamah, praised the regional organisations for implementing ESG (environmental, social, and governance) improvement strategies and also successfully delivering on them. He explained that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to many significant changes in the field of governance – the most crucial change being the increasing dependence on modern technologies for holding meetings or in the transition to the documents and business files circulation digitally, along with the expansion of companies to adopt sustainability standards at work, “in addition to the generally accepted governance systems, whether in the presence of systems control, accounting or risk departments, and a clear distribution of powers and authorities that prevents any position from exceeding other powers”.

H.E. Dr. Ahmad Bin Hassan Al Shaikh, Chairman of the Hawkamah Board, said that the “UAE government is very much committed to sustainability and good governance and has taken many steps to encourage companies and government institutions to be sustainable.” He added, “Boards and organisations need to proactively embark on their ESG journey by incorporating sustainability into their medium and long-term strategy, as well as their everyday operations.”

Over 300 participants and attendees joined from MENA region, US, UK, Singapore, Brazil, South Africa, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, and France for a conference held at the institute with aim to discuss the significance of investment in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) to gain confidence of the investors, and achieve sustainable as well as long-term growth in the MENA region. The conference also highlighted the importance of ESG in the post-pandemic era.