Four annual reports from the Gulf received high acclaim by winning 14 awards at the 25th International ARC Awards, popularly dubbed 'the Academy Awards' of annual reports.

The Annual Reports of Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA), Oman Air, Ithmaar Bank and Batelco put the Middle East on the global annual reporting map with the wins, a statement said.

Accepting these awards on behalf of their clients were Dr Vijith Kannangara, Ananda Jagoda and Luxshmanan Nadaraja of Smart Media - The Annual Report Company.

The awards were presented by Cheryl Casone of the Fox Business Network at a gala black tie banquet held at the Plaza Hotel in New York on September 22 in the midst of a large international gathering of top corporate executives.

QFCRA's annual report won eight awards which included two Golds and two Grands for the best non-English Annual Report and Printing and Production respectively.

The best of the Golds are nominated for Grand awards, which are considered the 'Oscars' of the annual reporting world.

Oman Air's Annual Report won two Golds as did Bahrain's Islamic Retail Bank, Ithmaar Bank. The latter included the Gold for the best chairman's letter. Ithmaar Bank had presented a unique joint statement by the chairman and the CEO titled 'A Candid Letter'.

Batelco, Bahrain's leading telecom company, won an award for its annual report titled 'Bahrain's Pearl of Great Pride'.

All the Middle Eastern annual reports that won at the ARC Awards were produced by Smart Media - The Annual Report Company who won a total of 48 awards including 19 Golds and 4 Grands on behalf of their clients from different parts of the world.

Commenting on the Middle East's performance, Kannangara, chairman of Smart Media, said: "These top international awards would play their part in improving perceptions on governance, risk management and transparency of companies in the Middle East in general."

"The Middle East would feature prominently in our expansion as we believe that annual reports of top Middle Eastern companies are generally punching well below their weight," added Kannangara.

Smart Media were also recipients of the League of American Communications Professionals Gold award for the worldwide agency of the year for annual reports in July. – TradeArabia News Service