Suchergebnisse

Chapter 1. Evolution of SAMA's role and monetary and macro prudential policies -- Chapter 2. The Saudi banking sector: from Saudization to Liberalization and its role in economic development -- Chapter 3. The Saudi Capital Market: coming of age -- Chapter 4. Unfinished business challenges ahead and conclusion.

The decision by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to launch the country's ambitious and generational transformation program to wean the Kingdom away from oil under the Vision 2030 plan in 2016 was also an important milestone for Saudi Aramco. The Vision places an important role for the National Oil Company to play and enshrines some key objectives for the company: - Transforming Aramco from an oil company to a global industrial conglomerate, - Using the proceeds of the IPO to transform the Public Investment Fund into the world's largest Sovereign Wealth Fund, - Involving Aramco in a wide range of industrial enterprises and partnerships with a focus on localized local content, - Aramco to become a catalyst for transparency and investor accountability. The Author examines Aramco from its infancy in the 1930's under the concession agreement, to where it is today in preparing for its new Vision 2030 expanded mandate and the planned IPO. Topics discussed include a comparative analysis of the fortunes of four partly privatized National Oil Companies - Statoil, Rosneft , Petrobras and Sinopec - and lessons learned from their experience ; Aramco's pivotal shift towards the Asian and Far East markets and its diversification into the refining and petrochemical sector; Saudi Arabia's energy efficiency and renewable energy program; Aramco's current structure and its key asset, its people; required governance and other reforms to meet different international listing requirements , with their listing criteria examined in detail. Finally the Author estimates Aramco's IPO valuation under different oil prices and key assumptions and scenarios, as well as Saudi Arabia's future role in OPEC and its oil policy. The Crown Prince has placed high expectations on a successful Aramco IPO as the fate of the Vision 2030 and the company is entwined. Getting it wrong is not an option for both.

Decades go by and nothing happens; then weeks go by and decades happen". This apt saying encapsulates the dramatic convulsions taking place across the Arab world that first erupted in 2011 in Tunisia and which rapidly spread to other countries. These events have affected the lives of ordinary citizens in many more ways than had been intended when the "Arab Spring" broke out, with the endgame still not very clear as demonstrated in countries like Egypt, Syria and Libya. By comparison, with some exceptions, the six countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council have been relativ

The 'Arab Spring' of 2011 has affected the countries of the region to varying degrees, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain. The GCC has become a significant regional bloc playing a vital economic and political role far beyond its shores, given its geopolitical strategic location, a preponderance of global energy reserves and a major international player through the use of accumulated financial reserves. A new Gulf is rising, one that is more self assertive, looking to expand its membership to other Arab countries such as Jordan and Morocco, while at the same time strengthening the bloc's relationship with current and emerging trading and strategic partners in Europe, USA and Asia. Regional and international realities, especially the uncertainties unleashed by the 'Arab Spring', are forcing Gulf leadership to initiate new policies involving closer cooperation amongst GCC countries to address emerging challenges. This volume brings together thirty renowned academics and specialists to examine a range of multifaceted social, political and economic issues facing the GCC in key areas such as: Diversification from a high dependency on a narrow hydrocarbon base - Social transformation, youth employment and effective gender participation - Outward and inward foreign direct investment flows - Prospects for education reforms and e-learning - Sustainable security in oil, renewable energy (including nuclear) and food - Corporate governance, transparency and enhancing the private sector's operating environment - The role and governance of Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds in investing their surpluses. The volume also offers insights for challenges facing the GCC in monetary union, expanding the regional debt market and Sukuk issuance, GCC intellectual property rights application, detailed assessments of individual GCC country risk analysis, as well as the sustainability of long term government fiscal stimulus programs at the expense of private sector involvement.