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JEDDAH – The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) welcomed on Wednesday the securities markets regulators from Iceland, the Republic of the Maldives, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Syria as its newest members.
The four newest members’ applications for membership were accepted at today’s meeting of IOSCO’s Presidents’ Committee, which is made up of the chairmen and chief executives of it member securities regulators. In fulfilling the criteria for membership the applicants demonstrated their commitment to IOSCO’s Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation and that their regulatory regimes allowed them to become signatories to Appendix A of the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information.
Jane Diplock, chairman of the Executive Committee, said: “I am delighted to welcome these four jurisdictions as IOSCO’s newest members. It is particularly pleasing for me to see jurisdictions from such different legal and regulatory traditions demonstrating their commitment to IOSCO’s Principles.”
Jean St. Gelais, chairman of the Presidents’ Committee and CEO of the Quebec AMF, said: “I am pleased that this 35th Annual Conference in Montreal presents the opportunity of welcoming further new members to our organization. Since its formation in 1983, IOSCO has grown steadily and today, with the approval of these applications, can count on a membership drawn from 114 jurisdictions. This demonstrates the continuing relevance of the body to the development of well regulated global securities markets.” The new member agencies are:
q Financial Supervisory Authority, Iceland
q Capital Market Development Authority, Republic of the Maldives
q Capital Market Authority, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
q Syrian Commission for Financial Markets and Securities
Additionally the following bodies were admitted as Affiliate members of IOSCO:
q Athens’ Stock Exchange Members’ Guarantee Fund, Greece
q China Securities Investor Protection Fund Corporation Limited, China
q MCX Stock Exchange Limited (MCX-SX), India
q World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) – SG/QJM

Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Riyadh, arrived in Maldives, Thursday. He was received by Maldives Premier Ibrahim Hassan Zaki on his arrival. Later President of Maldives Mohammad Nasheed received Prince Salman at his presidential office in Malé. – SPA photo

NEW DELHI – Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Riyadh region, was awarded an honorary doctorate by Jamia Millia Islamia University here, for his role in supporting and promoting humanitarian projects.

In his speech at the ceremony Wednesday, Prince Salman said Jamia Millia was one of the most reputable universities in India. He said he had declined honorary doctorate degrees from several universities in the past, but had accepted it from Jamia Millia. He said he accepted the award on behalf of the Kingdom and its people.

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The annual Oriental Ladies Group (OLG) charity bazaar organized last week at the sprawling King Fahd Cultural Center (KFCC) in Riyadh was a big hit with the families of the diplomatic corps, and the Saudi and expatriate communities.

OLG president Naheed Sultana, who is wife of Haroonor Rashid, Labor Consul at the Bangladesh Embassy, said the OLG annual charity bazaar was organized in the KFCC premises for the time in the history of the group and attracted over 3,000 visitors. Visitors to the bazaar included Saudi families and families of diplomats from a number of countries, as well as members of expatriate communities living in the Kingdom, said Sultana.

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ABU DHABI – World leaders raised a fresh alarm on global warming, urging international action to increase use of clean energy at a four-day forum that opened in the emirate on Monday.

“If we dont act now, our coral reefs and rainforests will die, desert countries will become unbearably hot and low lying countries like the Maldives, will slip beneath the rising seas,” said the president of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed.

“Tackling climate change is not like dealing with other global issues, such as trade or disarmament. We do not have the luxury of time to meet, year after year, in endless negotiations,” the leader of the low-lying Indian Ocean nation told participants at the World Future Energy Summit.

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ABU DHABI: In a passionate speech that defined the mood of the keynote addresses and the entire World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said: We do not have the luxury of time to meet year after year in endless negotiations. And the science of climate change means that we cannot accept a watered down minimalist treaty. We cannot negotiate with the laws of physics. You cannot cut a deal with Mother Nature.

The Copenhagen climate conference, he said, had secured some positive outcomes but the Copenhagen accord in its present form would not prevent catastrophic climate change. Changes had to be radical and immediate. If we dont act now, our rainforests will die, deserts become unbearable to live in and low level countries like the Maldives will slip beneath the rising sea.

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JEDDAH – World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi is one of the global drivers of renewable energy development around the globe in pursuit of environmental sustainability, Dato Sri Mohd Najib bin Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia said on Monday.

He said the World Future Energy Summit will play a significant role, alongside Copenhagen, in accelerating the uptake of renewable, the future of the energy sector. He will be one of the speakers the Plenary Welcome Session that will open the World Future Energy Summit for the third year on Jany. 18-21, 2010. Other speakers in the session will include President Karolos Papoulias, President, Greece; Mohamed Nasheed, President, Maldives; The Crown Prince Felipe de Borb?n y Grecia, Spain and The Crown Prince Frederik André Henrik Christian, Denmark.

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KHALED Mohammed Al-Aboodi is a development banker in a hurry. He is also part of a new generation of Islamic development bankers for whom substance perhaps takes priority over form and where performance and social and real economy impact is the yardstick. As CEO and general manager of the Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector funding arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, he acknowledges that a core part of the mission of the IDB Group, and hence ICD, is to support Islamic financial institutions, especially to extend financing to small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

ICD’s support for the Islamic financial sector is assuming broader importance. “Outside the MENA region,” explained Al-Aboodi in an interview, “the presence of Islamic commercial banks is very limited. You may find one Islamic bank in some of the North African countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, there were some but they were very small institutions, and largely established by the Dar Al-Mal Al-Islami (DMI) Group in Geneva. They were not doing well. This year we took over DMI’s shares in these banks — Islamic Bank of Guinea, Islamic Bank of Senegal, and the Islamic Bank of Niger. The Arab Gambian Islamic Bank is not part of the DMI portfolio, and the IDB has a separate stake in this bank together with some Nigerian banks who are the largest shareholders.” ICD has since then obtained a license to set up an Islamic bank in Mauritania.

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RIYADH: With government offices and schools in Riyadh breaking up for the Eid Al-Adha holiday on Wednesday, people are leaving the capital for both domestic and international destinations.

Flights to Dubai and Cairo are already full, said a leading travel agent in Riyadh, adding that airlines are introducing additional flights in the coming days to cope with the rush.

Saudi Arabian Airlines, which currently operates three flights to Dubai, is to introduce two to three more flights depending on demand, said the travel agent, adding that Egypt Airlines is also expected to add two more flights this week keeping in view the rush.

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RIYADH: SriLankan Airlines announced on Wednesday the addition of another flight to its Colombo-Dammam route, thus adding to the lucrative Middle Eastern tourist market. Beginning Wednesday, which is the start of the new winter schedule, the total number of flights on this route will be four per week. The flight leaves Colombo at 1840 on Wednesday and arrives in Dammam at 2130 the same day. The return flight leaves Dammam at 2240 on Wednesday and arrives in Colombo at 0610 on Thursday. “Sri Lanka is an increasingly popular tourist destination, not only among Saudis, but also among the large number of expatriates living and working in the Kingdom. In addition to the tourist traffic, there are large numbers of expatriate workers in Dammam who use SriLankan to travel home. With the end of Sri Lanka’s war and the great tourist potential the country has, we are confident of a large number of visitors from Dammam this season,” SriLankan Airlines Sales Manager, Prathap Balakrishnan said.

The new Colombo-Dammam flight will not only promote tourist traffic between our two countries, but also facilitate onward leisure and business travel from Colombo. “Our flights are well connected to such Indian destinations as Madras, Trivandrum, Trichirapally, Bangalore and other Asian destinations like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and the Maldives,” Prathap added. With the new flight, Sri Lanka now offers 8 weekly flights from Saudi Arabia — 4 from Dammam, 2 from Riyadh and 2 from Jeddah.