Title: Press Release: Institutional Empowerment, Empowerment Plans (Organizational and Technical), and Strategic Budget

Kuwait, June 30, 2024 – The capital markets sector is considered one of the main economic sectors due to its vital role in investments, savings development, provision of financial instruments, income diversification, and creating national employment opportunities, which promote sustainable economic development. Therefore, the role of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) is directly related to contributing to Kuwait Vision 2035 and the requirements to transform Kuwait into an attractive financial and commercial center for investment.

The CMA considers the strategic planning process as one of the most important pillars for its success in achieving its vision and long-term objectives, with clear executable plans including specific financial budgets for programs and projects, within a specific timetable, clear criteria for measuring implementation success, and defined responsibilities for clear roles that evaluate and improve the workflow to raise the work efficiency and effectiveness in order to keep pace with changes in the work environment, direct its resources to enable the performance of its securities activities roles in accordance with its establishment Law, and at the same time contribute to achieving Kuwait development vision and the development of the national economy.

Moreover, in continuation of the CMA’s achievements and process, and within the framework of achieving its vision “To provide a safe and enabling regulatory environment to advance the State of Kuwait’s capital markets into developed markets that contribute to the national economy”, the CMA has developed its strategic plan for the coming years to respond to the requirements of the next phase, keep pace with the local and international changes and directions, and in accordance with the Country’s directions and vision.

The CMA has launched its third strategic plan (2023/2024-2026/2027) on Sunday, April 2, 2023, with the participation of Prof. Ahmad Al-Melhem - Chairman of the Board of Commissioners - Managing Director, and the CMA’s Third Strategy Preparation Team, and the presence of journalists. This This comes as a continuation of the CMA’s achievements during the past years through a work team of CMA’s specialized national cadres led by the Strategies Office to respond to the requirements of the next phase, keep pace with the local and international changes and directions, be compatible with the Country’s directions, contribute to the effective achievement of “Kuwait Vision 2035”, and implement its roles in accordance with its establishment Law and its vision of developing the financial markets sector in the State of Kuwait. The components of the strategic plan are considered a roadmap that intensifies efforts and direct resources to ensure the consistency of the organizational units to transfer the CMA from its current state to the targeted state at the end of the plan.

The CMA is responsible for the governance of its projects’ management and following up their performance and achievement to support the implementation of its strategic objectives. Furthermore, it prepares, manages, and develops its strategic plan and implementation plans, including empowerment plans (organizational and technical) and the strategic budget, which manage the resources that require the implementation of sub-initiatives (development projects and work) included in the implementation plan.

CMA's third strategic plan is based on three main pillars, including a number of strategic objectives, through which efforts are intensified and focused to achieve the objectives of the plan. They are measured by a number of strategic indicators. Each objective is divided into major initiatives, which in turn has a number of sub-initiatives to achieve the plan’s vision of providing a safe and enabling regulatory environment to develop the capital markets in the State of Kuwait into developed markets that contribute to the national economy. The following graph shows the components of the CMA’s strategic plan:

The first pillar aims to complete the CMA's pioneering role in developing the capital markets with its strategic partners by continuing to develop the market system and developing the legislative and regulatory frameworks in line with modern international trends in the capital markets, as well as working to stimulate qualitative listings in the securities exchange and encourage institutional investment in order to achieve the desired liquidity rates among the participants in the capital markets. The second pillar aims to continue the efforts of maintaining the CMA’s position and managing its network of relations at all levels by actively contributing to strengthening relations at the local, regional and international levels, activating joint agreements and highlighting the CMA’s position locally, regionally and internationally, continuing to raise levels of awareness and investment and legal knowledge, supporting the information security for all securities dealers, and disseminating the concepts of financial inclusion. The third pillar aims to strengthen the CMA's internal capabilities, adopt best administrative and organizational practices, build the capabilities and competencies of human capital, and use modern technologies in aspects of digital transformation and technical empowerment in line with the modern trends and the Country's directions.

Due to its importance, the CMA’s current strategy has singled out its third pillar to the institutional empowerment, which specializes in building CMA’s internal capabilities, from its belief that the results of those efforts will positively be reflected on the performance of CMA’s main roles in a form that ensures efficiency in directing its resources and effectiveness of its tasks. Accordingly, this pillar completes the results of the plan, and the CMA will continue adopting the best administrative and organizational practices, building the capabilities and competencies of its internal cadres, and using modern technologies. The institutional empowerment pillar aims to develop CMA’s empowerments in the areas of digital transformation, technical empowerment, investment in human capital, improving the operations, and developing the work environment in a form that ensures the development of its systems and the facility of its work procedures, and increases the efficiency of its employees in high-performance environment.

The CMA has prepared the project of its draft strategy in accordance with a new methodology it has previously developed in the project that it launched in September 2020, which aimed to develop the CMA's strategic planning practices according to the best leading international practices. 

Through this project, a new framework for strategic planning and management was designed to be a reference in designing and preparing the CMA's future strategies, by conducting interviews with stakeholders who influence the CMA’s strategy, analyzing documents and practices of the strategic planning cycle, the development of a comprehensive report to diagnose the current situation, including gaps and corrective solutions, and the issuance of a guide to the strategic planning methodology developed according to the best practices. This was followed by training courses to familiarize all the CMA’s job levels with the new strategic planning methodology and the models and templates used in it, in addition to developing a plan for managing communication and change and preparing the implementation team to start applying the new methodology. The CMA also worked in parallel at that time to prepare a digital transformation strategy, which it launched in October 2021.
 
The CMA has launched the preparation of its third strategy on March 30, 2022, through holding a workshop in the presence of the Managing Director and forming a specialized team led by the Strategies Office in participation of various factors from CMA’s sectors and in coordination with all parties to implement many of the major tasks and deliverables within the framework of CMA’s third strategy. The first stage of the strategic planning methodology stages (Organize and Assess) was completed, through which the CMA has conducted environmental surveys of internal and external analysis that may affect various stakeholders and studied the influences surrounding CMA’s work to determine the desired strategic aspirations for the coming period. In order to reach the strategic aspirations on the CMA’s level and draft them in a clear and realistic form, the environmental surveys included opinion polls of stakeholders that are related to the CMA’s internal and external work and are influential to its strategy. Those entities were determined and classified to (4) main categories which included (41) international and local entities for the purpose of determining the practices and standards required for meeting CMA’s roles on the international and local level and achieving the investors aspirations and needs. The CMA has communicated with all the relevant stakeholders to meet their important needs that require the contribution of the CMA and the Capital Markets Academy during the period from 2023 to 2027. The CMA has also communicated with all relevant entities , the most prominent of which is the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Central Bank of Kuwait, Boursa Kuwait Securities Company, Kuwait Clearing Company, and other government entities such as Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority, Kuwait Financial Intelligence Unit, Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority, Insurance Regulatory Unit, in addition to other local entities such as Union Of Investment Companies, Kuwait Economic Society, Chartered Financial Analyst Society, Kuwait University, and Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry to survey their visions thereon. Then, the CMA received the responses of the relevant entities to meet their aspirations, visions, needs, and fields of cooperation for the coming period further to its role in achieving such aspirations. The first stage, through which the change agenda was specified, is considered the base for determining the components of the third strategy from vision, mission, values, pillars, strategic objectives, initiatives, and indicators, so that the preparation of the implementation plan can be initiated and then detailed in the operational plans.

This was followed by completion of the second stage (Strategy Formulation) to specify the strategic priorities and CMA’s vision, mission and values, in addition to specifying the plan’s pillars, objectives, indicators, and strategic initiatives. This stage will introduce the preparation of the final strategic plan document and the implementation plan, according to which the work of the third stage of the CMA’s strategic planning methodology was completed, represented by preparation of the implementation plan and empowerment plans in coordination with CMA’s sectors and various organizational units.

Therefore, the third stage (Develop Strategy Implementation Plan) was achieved through approving the listing of required sub-initiatives. The organizational and technical empowerment plans, and the strategic budget was prepared in parallel with the fourth stage (Develop Operational Plans), and they were approved in Resolution No. (B.C.A 2-17) on May 29, 2024, regarding the third stage of the strategic planning methodology - organizational and technical empowerment plans, and the strategic budget. The organizational (organizational unit – procedures and competences – training – workforce – financial resources (strategic budget)) and technical empowerment was also approved in fulfilment of the remaining tasks of the third stage of the CMA’s strategic planning methodology in coordination with CMA’s sectors and various organizational units, summarized as follows:

First: Organizational Empowerment Plan:
a. Organizational Unit:
It is a plan that determines the implementation possibilities of the organization unit and the governance framework to achieve CMA’s strategic objectives. This plan may include amendments to the organizational unit, general objectives, organizational units’ competences, or amendment to the Executive Bylaws.

Around (17) organizational possibilities of the organizational structure were monitored, the most prominent of which was developing a competence for the management of the knowledge and statical activities and the digital directions in order to achieve the results of the digital transformation strategy, and to be in line with the direction of the State of Kuwait towards digitizing the government services and supporting the digital and knowledge economy, and in enforcement of Law No. 27 of Regarding Statistics and Census, Item (4) of Article (3) regarding : “ Supervision of the statistical works performed by the concerned departments in all the ministries, organizations, institutions, and companies which the government subscribes to its capital, and coordination of their statistical works. Every ministry or governmental organization or institution shall establish a statistical section.”

b. Operations Development:
It is a plan that determines the implementation possibilities of the operations to achieve CMA’s strategic objectives. This plan may include amendments to the internal policies and regulations, authorizations matrix, and work procedures.

c. Workforce:
It is a plan that determines the implementation possibilities of the workforce to achieve CMA’s strategic objectives. This plan may include an estimate for the workforce that will be employed externally or rotated internally in accordance with CMA’s employment policy.

d. Career Training and Building Competencies:
It is a plan that determines the implementation possibilities of the career training and building competencies to achieve CMA’s strategic objectives. This plan may sharpen the skills to meet new roles or support current roles or the training needs for the topics specified through the strategy cycle.

Around (32) organizational possibilities of the career training and building competencies were monitored. During the coming period, an emphasis will be placed on several fields such as Islamic financial industry in the capital markets and the Sharia supervision, developing the regulatory and supervisory framework of central counterparty (CCP) and risk management, challenges of financial technologies (fintech) from the supervisory perspective of capital markets and activating their regulatory frameworks, anti-money laundering and combating terrorism, objectives of sustainable development, governance professional certificate, key performance indicators, projects management and the workshop of management and planning skills and tools, digital transformation, cyber security, training courses on markets regulation management and the operational work related to trading on securities, the Exchange, and the clearing, training courses on the institutional data governance, knowledge activities management, and statistics, in addition to institutional risk management.

In this context, the CMA has organized the First Training Forum of the Capital Markets Authority to launch “The Comprehensive Training Guide” under the slogan of “Towards New Paths” to launch the annual training plan 2024/2025 and present a new training approach that achieve CMA’s strategic objectives and future vision.

Second: Technical Empowerment Plan:
It is a plan that determines the implementation possibilities of the technical empowerment to achieve CMA’s strategic objectives. This plan includes technical infrastructure possibilities, workforce technical possibilities, business continuity, information security, digital transformation, and the institutional digital objectives and initiatives of the CMA.

Around (47) technical possibilities were monitored. During the coming period, an emphasis will be placed on several fields such as information security, cyber security and business continuity, adopting digital transformation direction at CMA’s work, information security governance for companies subject to the CMA, developing the current technical systems, developing the information centers, developing the devices of the work environment, developing the monitoring systems, and establishing a platform for training and virtual reality.

Third: Strategy Implementation Budget (Strategy Budget):
It is the budget that achieves CMA’s strategic objectives and includes the financial estimates of the implementation plan and each empowerment plan as well as the operational expenses, including the salaries divided on the strategy cycle. A comprehensive vision will be established for CMA’s overall and annual budget to ensure that the strategies budget will not exceed the operational capital of KWD 40 million set forth in Article (21) of CMA’s establishment Law.

In conclusion, the Capital Markets Authority would like to thank each contributor and participant from the Country’s institutions, whether from the public sector or private sector, and all the CMA’s employees for the success of its efforts towards developing the capital markets in the State of Kuwait. Ambitions shall not be limited to previous achievements, but we always look forward for further development and success to build a better economic future.

Ends-
Notes to Editors:
The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) of Kuwait was established pursuant to Law No. 7 of 2010 Regarding the Establishment of the Capital Markets Authority and Regulating Securities Activities, and its amendments, approved by the Kuwaiti Parliament in February 2010. Under this Law, the CMA regulates and supervises securities activities, ensures transparency, fairness, efficiency, and observes listed companies’ implementation of Corporate Governance regulations. The CMA also protects investors from unfair practices and violations of the CMA's Law.
Furthermore, the Law stipulates the supervision of mergers, acquisitions, and disclosure operations. The CMA also aims to provide awareness programs pertaining to securities activities.
For further information, please contact:
Public Relations & Media Office
Tel: 22903062
Fax: 22903505
Email: pr-media@cma.gov.kw