eFinancialCareers

Dubai Inc. is making moves to wipe a sometimes misty window transparent, which is good news for corporate governance professionals.

The region hasn’t exactly been known for good corporate governance in the past. Earlier this month The Times claimed that the chairman of one of Dubai’s biggest investment funds kept schtum on the value of the investments he managed, let alone their return.

However, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) claims such dodgy behaviour isn’t tolerated within the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), which upholds western standards of corporate transparency in order to attract international players, according to managing director of supervision Michael Zamorski.

“If you want to take part in international capital markets, you have to benchmark to international standards. That’s our focus here and it is also the ultimate aim outside the DIFC. You have to be at those standards or you’re not a player in the international market,” he says.

Chris Pierce, CEO of Global Governance Solutions (GGS), which advises governments and business leaders on good governance standards, says there will be a need for a ‘significant’ number of corporate governance professionals in the region going forward: “There will be a particular need for independent non-executives, company secretaries, remuneration experts and audit experts.”

GGS is working with Hawkamah – the Middle East institute for corporate governance – to train locals in these areas, and the DFSA is in its third recruitment process for ‘Tomorrow’s Regulatory Leaders’. The scheme cherry-picks Emirati graduates with the eventual aim of handing over regulatory responsibility to them.

Pierce says there still needs to be significant improvement in transparency within the region, but sovereign funds like Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Dubai International Capital – the investment arm of ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Dubai Holdings – are gradually realising the benefits of implementing Western-style methods of corporate policing.