The GCC Financial Forum, co-hosted by Euromoney Conferences and the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) began today at the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain.

More than 800 leading financial experts, government officials, business leaders and members of the media attended the event from across the region.

David Pritchard, non-executive director of Euromoney Institutional Investor, gave the welcome address on behalf of Euromoney, thanking the EDB for its partnership and ongoing support for conference. The opening remarks were followed by an insightful, in-depth keynote interview with Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive of EDB.

The forum audience then heard from two international speakers: Francis Fukuyama, political commentator, futurist and author; and Lord Adair Turner, chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, who provided some global contextualisation to the discussions which followed.

Both keynote speakers also joined the opening panel of the day, alongside Farouk Soussa, Middle East chief economist for Citi. The session explored how the global and regional macroeconomic and geopolitical environment affects the Gulf, and examined the outlook for the financial sector in the coming year.

The second panel of the morning, which featured Elyas Algaseer, head of Mena Corporate Banking at The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi; and Hasan Al Jabri, chief executive officer of Sedco Capital, focused on defining the GCC financing challenge. Panellists discussed how financial institutions can help to drive economic development and corporate growth in the region and addressed the potential for further integration of the GCC financial markets on the global stage.  

Day one of the event also featured a ‘town-hall’ interview with Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Ggovernor, Central Bank of Bahrain. This unique format, which has now become traditional at the GCC Financial Forum, once again offered the audience the opportunity to put their questions directly to the Governor.

The first day of the forum closed with keynote interviews with two leading bank CEOs: Adel A El Labban, Group chief executive officer of Ahli United Bank, and Bassel Gamal, Group chief executive officer of QIB.

The forum audience have another busy day to look forward to tomorrow (Feb 28). The second day of the event will have keynote addresses from Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Finance, as well as Zayed Rashed Al Zayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism for Bahrain.

Tomorrow, the event programme will focus on addressing how innovation and technology can help to tackle the region’s financing challenge. Timothy Los, chairman and CEO of Rante Corporation, a leading cloud-based compliance solution provider, remarked: “Rante is excited to be involved in the GCC Financial Forum as a sponsor to highlight the importance of regulatory compliance through technology.”

Speakers including Rita Liu, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Alipay; Marcus Treacher, global head of Strategic Accounts at Ripple; and Chris Skinner, a well-known fintech commentator and author; will explore the future of innovation in fintech, and discuss the future trends in the global payments industry and the role that GCC countries can play in the development of this fast-evolving sector. – TradeArabia News Service