Publication: Corporate Governance Country Assessment: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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Date
2009-02
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2009-02
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Good corporate governance ensures that companies use their resources more efficiently, protects minority shareholders, leads to better decision making, and improves relations with workers, creditors, and other stakeholders. It is an important prerequisite for attracting the patient capital needed for sustained long-term economic growth. This report provides an assessment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) corporate governance policy framework. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in KSA. The corporate governance laws, regulations, and institutions that have been put in place generally reflect international good practice. In the wake of the market correction of 2006, market regulators focused on the need for better corporate governance via legal and institutional reforms. These included passing a Corporate Governance Regulation (CGR) for listed companies (2006), and further strengthening the supervisory functions across the financial sector. However, many of the laws and institutions are still relatively new and untested; awareness of the importance of good corporate governance is low, and implementation by companies in its early stages.
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“World Bank. 2009. Corporate Governance Country Assessment: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28086 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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