Title: The Capital Markets Authority Participates in the Nineteenth Meeting of the Heads of GCC Capital Markets Authorities Committee (or their Equivalents) and the Eighth Meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Board of Directors’ Heads of the GCC Capital Markets (Launching Gulf Capital Markets Knowledge Portal)

Kuwait City – 28 October 2019. A delegation from the Capital Markets Authority has participated in the nineteenth meeting of the Heads of GCC Capital Markets Authorities Committee (or their equivalents) that took place in Muscat, Oman. The CMA delegation was headed by Prof. Ahmad Al-Melhem - Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Managing Director, with the participation of: Mr. Muthanna Al-Saleh - Head of Markets Sector-, Mr. Moayed Al-Shakhs - Director of Chairman of the Board of Commissioners and Managing Director’s Office, Mr. Nawaf Al-Saleh – Director of Strategies Office, and Mr. Abdulrahman Mohamad -Director of International Relations Office, and with the presence of their Excellences Heads of the Member States authorities, and the GCC General Secretariat. The meeting, dated 27 – 28 October 2019, included the Second Joint Meeting between the Heads of GCC Capital Markets Authorities Committee (or their equivalents) and the GCC Markets Heads (the Exchanges), and the Eighth Meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Board of Directors’ Heads of the GCC Capital Markets.

The Nineteenth meeting of the Committee initiated on Sunday 27/10/2019 with an opening speech by Mr. Abdullah Bin Salem Al-Salmi – Executive President of the Capital Market Authority of Oman, and the Chairman of this assembly – welcoming the Heads of the Member States authorities, and the GCC General Secretariat, and emphasizing that this meeting aims to promote communication and exchange of views between the GCC countries. He also talked about the GCC’s work and achievements in developing the cooperation and coordination in their countries in order to meet the aspirations of the people in the region, emphasizing that their economy is the most important aspect on which citizens build their hopes. This was followed by a speech by Mr. Khalifa Al-Abri –The GCC Assistant Secretary General for the Economic and Development Affairs – who praised the great efforts made by the Heads of GCC Capital Markets Authorities Committee (or their equivalents) in the economic convergence and integration of the capital markets between the GCC countries, which made a great impact on the adoption of a number of standard guiding rules and principles for the integration of the GCC capital markets.

The committee browsed the memorandum of the General Secretariat regarding following up and implementing the resolutions of the previous meeting of the committee (the eighteenth) as the starting point of the discussions, the most important of them were the latest developments regarding the memorandum of understanding between the Heads of the GCC Capital Markets. The second meeting item was viewing the certified minute of the fourth meeting of the working group of the GCC capital markets integration strategy held on  August 1, 2019 regarding the mutual recognition initiative between the GCC countries (Passporting), that studied the application of inter-licensing on the investment funds and its activities and services, to be applied at a later stage on all or some of the securities products, services, and activities.  Kuwait CMA, in coordination with the Capital Market Authority of Oman, presented a draft worksheet regarding the application of inter-licensing on the investment funds between the GCC countries, the mechanism of its implementation, and its timeline  after adding the member states notes and visuals. The participants viewed the draft worksheet and took the right decision in this regard. The third meeting item was discussing the latest developments of the memorandum of understanding between the Heads of the GCC Capital Markets concerning the training field and facilitating the exchange of information and experience. The standard format of requesting information was presented to the committee after being reviewed by the General Secretariat and the Central Bank of Bahrain, and after implementing the member states notices.  It was approved at the meeting.

The fourth meeting item was allocated to present the memorandum of the General Secretariat regarding the topics of the Second Joint Meeting between the Heads of GCC Capital Markets Authorities Committee (or their Equivalents) and the GCC Markets Heads (the Exchanges). It is worth noting that this meeting was held immediately after the committee’s meeting. Boursa Kuwait Securities Company was represented by Mr. Hamad Meshary Al-Humaizi – Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Mr. Mohammad Saud Al-Osaimi – the CEO. The meeting opened with viewing the memorandum of the General Secretariat regarding consolidating the opening time of the securities markets in the GCC countries. It discussed several topics such as studying the mechanisms of the central clearing of the GCC capital markets, the dual listing between the GCC markets, and activating inter-licensing between the GCC exchanges and finding the best ways for its implementation.

The participants approved the proposal of the State of Kuwait regarding forming a working group for the legal sectors in the GCC authorities, and assigned  Kuwait CMA to form a platform (group) for the representatives of the legal sectors of the Heads of the GCC Capital Markets and the General Secretariat. This is to exchange experiences and information, participate in the shared activities of developing the legislatives of achieving capital markets integration in the GCC countries, and to guarantee compliance with the capital markets’ laws and bylaws. Then, the participants viewed the memorandum of the General Secretariat concerning the latest developments of the GCC capital markets in general before moving on to set the date and place of the future meetings. Appropriate dates in the year of 2020 were set for the twentieth and twenty-first meetings of the Heads of GCC Capital Markets Authorities Committee (or their equivalents).

In the same context, the Ministerial Committee of the Board of Directors’ Heads of the GCC Capital Markets had its eighth meeting on the next day 28 October 2019, in which the representatives of the State of Kuwait were Prof. Ahmad Al-Melhem - Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the CMA, the Managing Director, and the accompanying delegation. Announcing the launch of Gulf Capital Markets Knowledge Portal was its key issue that formed a basis for cooperation in providing studies, information, and statements, share of experiences, training, and development between the member states. The Gulf Capital Markets Knowledge Portal was adopted and established by  Kuwait CMA, as it was inaugurated by the head of the Kuwaiti delegation being praised by the GCC countries for the great efforts and the desired objectives of this portal.

It is worth noting that the participating delegations at the meetings were their Excellences the Chairmen of the Board of Directors and the GCC General Secretariat that were: the UAE delegation headed by Dr. Obaid Saif Al-Za’abi - CEO of The Securities and Commodities Authority, the delegation of the Kingdom of Bahrain headed by Mr. Rasheed Mohammed Al-Meraj – the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bahrain Securities Market, the KSA delegation headed by Mr. Mohammed Al-Kuwaiz – Chairman of the Capital Market Authority, the delegation of Oman headed by Mr. Abdullah Al-Salmi –The Executive President of the Capital Market Authority, and the delegation of Qatar was headed by Mr. Nasser Bin Ahmad Al-Shibi -CEO of  Qatar Financial Markets Authority-. The session was chaired by Mr. Yahya Bin Saeed Al-Jabri – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Capital Market Authority of Oman.

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Notes to Editors:
The Capital Markets Authority was established pursuant to Law No. 7/2010, approved by the Kuwaiti Parliament in February 2010. Pursuant to the Law, the CMA shall regulate and supervise the securities activities, achieve transparency and fairness, observe listed companies’ execution of Corporate Governance regulations, and protect investors from unfair practices which violate the CMA's Law.
Furthermore, the Law's provisions stipulate the supervision of mergers, acquisitions, and disclosure operations. The CMA also aims to provide awareness programs related to securities activities.
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