The decision of the Sultanate of Oman to activate the Corporate Governance Framework and transparent disclosure reflects their standards of transparency and integrity. In July 2020, the Oman Investment Authority restructured the boards of 15 companies in its portfolio as part of a comprehensive review of its assets, as it looks to boost efficiencies amid the global pandemic, with the aim of improving their performance, raising their efficiency and enabling them to actively contribute to the economic system.
These restructuring procedures are in accordance with specific standards that pertain to the operational conditions of these companies and the sectors they represent. To ensure community participation, Oman Investment Authority appointed 79 experts from various fields in different government and private positions to represent the OIA as heads and members of boards in the firms under its supervision. Undoubtedly, this will help maximize the benefits for the companies through the right decision-making and in mapping and accelerating economic growth.
This wise step reflects positively on the vision of the government and would benefit everyone in the Sultanate, and ultimately lead to the achievement of the principle of expanding community participation for shaping the country’s present and future, which is one of the main objectives aligned to the national vision.
On the other hand, this change came in order to achieve effective management and optimal governance in accordance with higher directives, by making ministers and undersecretaries of ministries devote themselves to the tasks assigned to them, far from combining positions and being in the boards of directors of many companies.
This is in addition to providing an effective corporate governance framework that preserves the rights of all shareholders, ensure equality in dealing with all shareholders, confirm the role of stakeholders and strengthen the principles of disclosure and transparency in companies, and define the responsibilities of boards of directors in companies. The decision describes a considerable set of economic measures so that it becomes more effective in the next phase, and thus enhance economic diversification within the framework of vision ‘Oman 2040’.
The Vision 2040 is a guide and key reference for planning activities in the next two decades. And the strategy in the vision is based on inputs from Omani individuals, businesses and stakeholders representing all sections of Omani society. The vision also foresees a society with flexible yet strong agencies, all-encompassing governance, effective supervision, swift justice, efficient performance, and active and ever engaging media, aided by an empowered civil society that participates in all aspects of life, towards higher levels of human development.
Hence, we consider this as one of the basic principles of good governance transparency, which implies public participation in the work of public administration bodies, so that accountability and fair control can be achieved in companies and bodies supervised by the State with the representation of experts and specialists, apart from ministers or deputy ministers.
Undoubtedly, this principle will add value to the efforts of the State of Qatar in implementing sound governance rules, as Qatar is the only Arab country where shareholding companies are required to submit Corporate Governance Report since 2010.
This approach helps to ensure effective procedures to resolve conflict-of-interest situation, which is one of the most important rules of governance, as it works to increase productivity in the functioning of companies and make them more influential in economic development.
The Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) strategic plan, which is in the light of the Qatar National Vision 2030, would achieve the main objective of the financial system in our country and also help the advancement of Qatari capital markets to serve as a model for financial services.