Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) has stated that the Kingdom has gained higher positions on a number of global competitiveness indicators related to the financial market.
The authority which was citing World Competitiveness Yearbook 2020 to make its observations, pointed out the country’s efforts to develop the financial market sector and apply the best international practices as the primary reasons for the remarkable progress made at the global level.
CMA’s Undersecretary for Strategic and International Affairs Yazid Bin Saleh Al-Dumaiji remarked that the Kingdom was ranked 24th on the global competitiveness index of the International Institute for Administrative Development (IMD), an improvement of 2 positions when compared to its position in 2019 among the most competitive 63 countries in the world.
Mr. Al-Dumaiji observed that Saudi Arabia had improved its position on six indicators, the most prominent one being its rise to second place on the stock market capitalization index (as a percentage of GDP) from being 26 in 2019.
The country also saw its position jump from 33rd to 20th place in the easy access to financial markets index, and from 36 to 4th place in the IPO Index.
Mr. Al-Dumaiji pointed out that the CMA has also achieved a number of international honors in the last year.
The authority contributed towards the development of a special index related to investor protection in the Islamic capital markets to specify the minimum requirements that must be applied in those markets. The index was subsequently issued by the Islamic Financial Services Board.
Mr. Al-Dumaiji noted that the CMA has received 150 applications to the Financial Technology Laboratory, which it launched in 2018 deriving from its continued support for the financial technology projects in the financial market in the Kingdom, an initiative of the Financial Leadership Program.
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