15/09/2015
During a workshop held in Asharqia chamber yesterday in cooperation with pearl initiative
Officials assert that having a standardized guide for transparency and integrity procedures is essential
A “transparency and integrity in the corporate sector” workshop was held in Asharqia chamber’s head office, Sunday 13 April 2015, with cooperation with the Pearl initiative. Officials and specialist that has participated in that workshop has agreed on the significance of that having a standardized guide for transparency and integrity procedures, to enforce transparency and integrity and turn it to an approved procedure in the establishments. They asserted that this would contribute to the improving the establishment performance, cultivate their businesses and revenue in their future endeavors.
Abdul Mohsen ibn Abdulmajeed Al-Faraj, board member in Ashaqia chamber, said to commence the workshop, which was attended by Abdulrahman ibn Abdullah Al-wabel, Asharqia chamber chairman, that despite all the recent developments in the business sector, we look forward for more steps to develop the business sector. Especially in terms of improving the level of performance and accomplishment and especially within the Institutional Action Plans. Al-Faraj pointed out during the workshop that was attended by SABIC, TADWAEL, SIEMENS, and ERNST AND YOUNG, that the chamber hopes that for an effective output from this workshop. Hopefully, the ideas and recommendations from this workshop will help in improving the institutional performance especially in the areas of governance and risk management, to ensure the highest level of transparency and integrity. Implementing such values will in turn reflect on the whole economic system and will benefit the economic sector in general, by developing, improving and raise the level of its contribution to the overall development of the economy.
He also thanked “pearl initiative” for their cooperation in organizing this workshop, as well as all the speakers and participants. For his part, Fahad Al-Turki, for his part, member of the Board of Governors in the Pearl Initiative, said there is a great interest from the business sector to be aware of the most important experiences and practices in implementing transparency and integrity policies, especially if large companies. He talked about integrity in business, pointing out that “trust” is a key component to have a positive and permanent relationship. That includes your work relationship with customers, suppliers, regulators and investor relations. Unlike the reputation that has been accumulated through past experiences; a trust based relationship can be a future standard of judgment for stakeholders expectations, and is considered that most valued item in the labor market.
He noted that trust is like a plant that must be nurtured and strengthened permanently immediately after it was acquired. Having a trust based relationship helps companies in creating value and flexibility and enables them to grow. Al-Turki pointed out that those growing companies are characterized by creating many job opportunities that stimulate economic activity, thus they provide new business opportunities for entrepreneurs, and all those practices stimulate the economy and make it an environment of positive work ethics, transparency that makes it fit for foreign investment.
The workshop was led by the director of chaired by the director of business development at Thomson Reuters in the Middle East Othman Al-Hugail, and a number of experts and prominent businesses leaders, to exchange views and experiences about viable practices and learned lessons that support priorities of the developing the business sector and to ensure economic sustainability. Several topics were discussed, namely; the need for developing the institutional performance, especially in the areas of governance and risk management, compliance with laws and regulations, and practices of integrity and good transparency within the institutions and the benefit of the business sector. Amongst the topics that were also discussed is the need to spread good practices through the "value chain" to suppliers and business partners, and the disclosure and transparency direction in the Kingdom and the Gulf region and the international level.
On that topic, Ahmed Shanqeeti, the Vice President of SABIC spoke about the company’s development of a new process of due diligence, how to deal with the expansion of the work standards integrating integrity standards, through transferring them to suppliers belonging to the company. SABIC is now interested in adopting new measures that contribute to training and suppliers to abide by the standards. The purpose of this is to make sure that the suppliers are following the same level of standards that we are committed to our customers. Al-Shanqeeti said that suppliers will undergo some applications to develop integrity commitment standards by the end of the year.
For his part, Mohammed Al-Romaih, the head of sales and customer relations in TADWAL explained that disclosure and transparency are of the biggest challenges any company can face before turning to a shareholder company. If the company is considering this transfer, it must rely on a full disclosure policy that includes information that gives the investor the ability to assess the investment opportunity. He pointed to the need for companies to implement internal changes, most notably corporate governance, where they must follow the regulatory procedures to regulate the relationship between shareholders, the board of directors and executive management control. Shady Al-Daoud, an Adviser in Siemens said that said that benefits of dealing with integrity and transparency vary from one country to another, depending on the level of corruption that exists in that country. He pointed that applying integrity standards contributes raising the quality and lowering the cost, and increase the productivity and success in providing the service. It also tells us about any Systems we need to enforce those standards and enact laws that protect them and working to make them a uniformed culture for all.
Finally, Bob Chandler, the advisor at Ernst & Young confirmed that from his experience that extends to 16 years, that the Gulf countries are considered among the least corrupt countries in the world, which is a good thing, GCC countries are in the top third of the list of least corrupt countries in the world. Mr. Chandler said that Saudi Arabia has many initiatives that focus on ethics, which are applied as an implementation of the transparency and integrity as well as the case of family businesses. He explained that companies are aware of the impact of very large-scale corruption that destroys companies, so they try to apply measures of transparency. Moreover, he pointed out the need for a special guide to be followed by the customer, because there are procedures that must be carried out by big companies and is committed to its clients, which is reflected positively on productivity.
At the end of the workshop, Abdul Mohsen ibn Abdulmajeed Al-Faraj, board member in Ashaqia chamber, gave the participants in the workshop attendance certificates.
