Kuwait: Boursa Kuwait was awarded Sustainable Stock Exchange of the Year in the Middle East by Pan Finance Magazine, a print and online journal providing worldwide intelligence on finance, economics, and global commerce.

The Pan Finance team announced the nomination on their website, commending Boursa Kuwait’s commitment to corporate sustainability for the company itself as well as the wider Kuwaiti capital market and its participants. The magazine also hailed the company as a model issuer and a company with sustainable operations and practices, one that is a key cog in the sustainability and resilience of the Kuwaiti capital market.

The Pan Finance awards program was established to be a true indicator of excellence. Identifying organizations and individuals that have excelled in their respective fields allows Pan Finance to shine a spotlight on and applaud leading examples of best practice. The magazine’s awards not only recognize the largest international corporations but companies operating on a more modest scale, who might otherwise go unnoticed in the global arena, as well. Shortlists of nominees are curated by the editorial team to put emphasis on relevant and time sensitive topics that the editorial team would like to showcase and recognize as an industry leader.

In 2021, Boursa Kuwait published an ESG disclosure guide that aims to support listed companies to report on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues, and to meet the growing needs of various stakeholders, including investors, customers, suppliers, and regulators for transparent and regular information, late last year.

The company has worked diligently on its Corporate Sustainability strategy. In April, on the heels of the disclosure guide, the company published its first standalone Sustainability Report, which detailed its strategy, partnerships, and initiatives in the field of ESG reporting and implementation for the year 2021. Aside from these guides and reports, the company recently partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on a workshop to help raise awareness of the best standards and practices for the reporting and implementation of ESG metrics, ensuring that they are aligned with the company’s overarching strategy as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Boursa Kuwait aims to be responsible and committed to its sustainable development as well as the community in which it operates, by ensuring a positive contribution to its Corporate Sustainability strategy and its three pillars, which consist of Education, Community, and Environment. The company also seeks to promote the adoption of socially impactful and accountable practices in its surrounding communities.

With a view to creating long-term value for the company’s stakeholders in the economic, social and environmental dimensions and ensuring that its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are aligned with its sustainability objectives, Boursa Kuwait has put in place a three-phased strategy to align, create and integrate.

This strategy stipulates ensuring initiatives apply and fall in line with the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), industry best practice standards and investor expectations, creating strong and sustainable partnerships that ultimately achieve success and allow Boursa Kuwait to leverage the capabilities and strengths of other companies or organizations that have experience in different fields, and integrating sustainability efforts with the company culture, in order to achieve longevity and an ongoing impact that is carried on and instilled in the day-to-day operations of the stock exchange.

As part of its ‘Education’ pillar, which envisions a robust capital market ecosystem where all stakeholders are fully equipped with the knowledge and skill required to be an active player in the nation’s exchange and capital markets and in an effort to further its commitment to contributing to the development and education of all market participants through sharing the latest updates of financial instruments and products implemented across the world, Boursa Kuwait partnered with the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) last month to provide training courses for both brokers and asset management firms.

Boursa Kuwait’s Corporate Sustainability strategy stipulates ensuring initiatives apply and fall in line with the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), industry best practice standards and investor expectations, creating strong and sustainable partnerships that ultimately achieve success and allow Boursa Kuwait to leverage the capabilities and strengths of other companies or organizations that have experience in different fields, and integrating sustainability efforts with the company culture, in order to achieve longevity and an ongoing impact that is carried on and instilled in the day-to-day operations of the stock exchange.

Since its inception, Boursa Kuwait, a self-listed company and one of the government entities to successfully undergo privatization, has implemented many steps in accordance with international practices and standards to enhance the position of the exchange regionally and globally, as well as transform Kuwait into a regional and global investment destination, by focusing on creating an attractive issuer base and broadening its investor base, increasing the depth and breadth of its products, as well as upgrading its infrastructure and business environment to international standards.