CEO of Boursa Kuwait Khaled Al-Khaled

NEW YORK: Foreign investors are keen on knowing the latest updates in regards to Boursa Kuwait, said an official late Monday. Speaking to KUNA and Kuwait television on the sideline of the HSBC Middle East North Africa (MENA) Investors forum, CEO of Boursa Kuwait Khaled Al-Khaled said that the current Kuwaiti participation in the event was to spread awareness on the latest developments at the national stock exchange of his country. Marketing Boursa Kuwait will help it to further reformulate its infrastructure to meet international standards, said the Kuwaiti official.

The current progress at Boursa Kuwait, which attracted the interest of foreign investors, is an indication that the market is heading in the right direction, said Al-Khaled who revealed that the bourse would be establishing an academy to develop the skills and knowledge of investors.

Also speaking to KUNA on the sideline of the forum, Vice Chairman of Kuwait's Capital Markets Authority's (CMA) Board of Commissioners and Acting Managing Director, Mishaal Al-Usaimi said that Boursa Kuwait's advancement had indeed attracted the interest from banks and investors from around the globe.

Boursa Kuwait has carried out the first phase of its development in 2017 since it was upgraded to the status of an emerging market.

The second phase of development will kick start on April 1 with major shifts in the market's indices and divisions, said the official who added that the third phase would begin mid-2018 with full implementation by the end of the year. Al-Usaimi said that the fourth phase, which regulates brokers' activities, would begin in 2019. All these steps will hopefully have a positive effect on the market, he affirmed. The HBSC forum witnessed the participation of 70 major investors from the US and the MENA region. Boursa Kuwait, the CMA, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), and Humansoft holding represent Kuwait at the forum. -KUNA