CMA adopts new moto “Keep Evolving”

Al Salmi,  the capital market ready to direct savings toward economic development projects

HE Yahya Said Al Jabri, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Special Economic Zone Authority at Duqm , Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Capital Market Authority presided over the annual day of CMA on Thursday 8 January 2015.

HE Sheikh Abdullah Salim Al Salmi, Executive President of the Capital Market Authority gave speech in which he said CMA is in the process of setting up a regulatory framework for the real estate financing in the Sultanate.

He added the real estate sector is very significant and will require extensive efforts to be regulated to ensure safety of financial activities and financial stability for being one of the pillars of sustainable economic development, hence it will get priority in our activities.

HE revealed that the Board of Directors of CMA has adopted a new moto for the coming phase “Keep Evolving” to create dynamic environment for innovation.

He said the first years of CMA had witnessed the setting up of the regulatory and legislative framework for the capital market when the jurisdiction over the public joint stock companies was transferred to CMA and then the insurance jurisdiction which enjoys an equal importance.

On the achievements of CMA in the past year he said, CMA was able to make a number of achievement including amendments to the Capital Market Law vide a Royal Decree. The amendments covered issues such as creating legal framework for Islamic Sukuk, financial trusts, special purpose vehicles, limitation of control and concentration and imposing harsher penalties for violators. The provisions of the Insurance Companies Law were also amended to obligate the insurance companies to be public joint stock companies in addition to conferring on CMA the powers of reconciliation  with violators of the law, standardization of the appeal process from the decisions of CMA.

On the technological development, the past year has witnessed achievement of a number of projects including the new version of the website, smart phones applications which was launched during the Traffic Safety Exhibition, receiving employment applications through the website, establishment of e-insurance which includes data base for insurance companies and the feature of filing licensing applications of insurance companies electronically.

Real Estate Financing

HE pointed out that the role of regulators in the advanced economies is to ensure soundness of the system and to curb systemic risks and soundness of financial transactions, while in the emerging economies they are required, in addition to such roles, to supervise and assist the sectors to develop and upgrade their services with regard to competence, diversity  and quality to serve the needs of the community. Hence, CMA’s role is to work with the other components of the  sectors (capital market, insurance and real estate) to help understand the challenges facing such institutions and to work together within the legal frameworks further to reviewing the laws and regulations to meet the needs of the economy and the community. We encourage the various organizations to innovate and adopt best practices under the supervision of the CMA, he said.

Diversification of the source of income

HE pointed out that the falling oil prices to less than US$ 50 per barrel require work to diversity the sources of income and the capital market has got a chance to play its natural role in directing the savings to the development projects. The statistics suggest that the total deposits, apart from the government deposits, were more than RO 10 billion in 2013 and  third are without any interest. If we target only RO 3 billion to direct toward productive projects they will benefit the national economy and the owners of such deposits on the first place.

Al Salmi concluded his speech by asserting that the capital and insurance markets are very important sectors for the support of the national economy and to do so they need to be supplied by qualified and trained  personnel whether on the part of the regulator or the executive institutions “Creating an industry requires finding people who can do the job”. Therefore, CMA is keen  about the human resources working in the sectors.

Employees

Some of CMA’s employees were honoured during the event. Mohammed Said Al Busafi said this will encourage us to exert further efforts and said he is happy for being appreciated by the organization.

Badr Salim Al Mahrouqi said honouring the employees in appreciation of their efforts will enhance the relationship between the employees and the management for better performance and is evidence the management is aware of the importance of motivating the employees at all levels.

Nadiyah Mohammed Al Alawi, Director of Awareness and Customer Service said she was honoured  with her colleagues for serving the organization for fifteen years which is a good gesture and would strengthen the relationship between the employees and create a family bond.

Naser Ahmed Al Salhe said such concern on the part of the organization is consolidation of the concept of motivation of the employees to create healthy work environment for continuation of innovation and creation.

Loqman Ali Al Harthy expressed his happiness for being honoured as the employee needs a moral incentive  to achieve his ambitions which would reflect on the practical performance and the development of the organization.