Dubai: Accountable and well-governed companies are the building blocks of any sustainable economy and society, said Bader Jafar, the founder of Pearl Initiative.
“These are the real drivers of social and economic sustainability and all of us have a role to play in this,” he said. Jafar was speaking at the inaugural Peal Initiative, a non-profit organisation working across the Gulf region to influence and improve corporate accountability and transparency, held in Dubai on Thursday.
He said that trust helps companies generate value and resilience, enabling them to grow.
Explaining how it works, Jafar added that growing companies create more jobs, stimulate economic activity, and in turn provide new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
These new professionals and new business owners gain the skills, and access to healthy markets that they need to create the industries and jobs of the future, according to Jafar.
“All of this stimulates the economy as an ethical, transparent place in which to do business, creating a nucleus for foreign investment. And so the cycle continues,” he said.
Principles
Governance measures are not only applicable to large businesses but to small-sized companies and even start-ups.
Jafar said: “In fact, small enterprises can arguably benefit the most from embracing the principles of corporate accountability, by increasing their appeal to prospective investors, employees, partners and customers which in-turn can help them to grow faster and steadier than they otherwise could.”
This can’t be done by the government alone, according to Reem Al Hashemi, the UAE Minister of State and Board Representative higher committee and Director General, Dubai Expo 2020.
However, to achieve this there should be partnership with the private sector and civil society, she said, during her keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Pearl Initiative.
“Collaboration, such as the Pearl Initiative and the UN Global Compact, are significant, because they can bring together governments and business to forge fundamental changes across the social spectrum in a way that advances human achievement,” she said.
Nabil Habayeb, President and CEO of GE in Middle East and North Africa and Turkey, told Gulf News that compliance and governance are the foundation for sustainable growth and without it any business is liable to collapse. According to Habayeb, “compliance and governance mean to keep your name clean and make a difference”.
He said: “Corporate governance and all training around that is not to change the DNA of employees, but to make sure that they know where to go and what to do to achieve sustainable business overall. It is about creating a corporate culture of accountability and transparency.”
