Kuwait's Central Bank Governor Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah (C) poses on stage with Gulf Bank Governors and officials at the third Kuwait Financial Forum in Kuwait City Monday. Pictured with Al-Sabah are (L-R) Jordan's Central Bank Governor Mohammad Said Shaheen, Qatar's Central Bank Governor Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani, Bahrain's Central Bank Governor Rasheed Al-Maraj, Saudi Arabia's Central Bank Governor Muhammed Al-Jasser, Lebanon's former Minister of Finance Jihad Azour, United Arab Emirates' Central Bank Governor Sultan bin Nasser Al-Suwaidi, Oman's Central Bank Governor Hamoud Al-Zadjali and Turkey's Central Bank Deputy Governor Mehmet Yorukoglu. — Reuters KUWAIT – Current global economic and financial troubles have placed challenges that must be tackled collectively, Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) governor said Monday. "At a time when the Arab region faces serious political turbulence, these challenges, that have affected the region's economic and financial systems, must be faced in order to enhance political and economic stability", Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah said in his keynote speech at Third Kuwait Financial Forum. "Economic and social development strategies are required that take into consideration the need of sustainable economic growth, appropriate job opportunities and the ideal use of economic resources," he added. On Europe, he said: "The agreement of world leaders in their Brussels meeting represents a breakthrough in solving the European sovereign debt crisis, and has received a warm welcome internationally as it enhanced the confidence across markets." "Despite the US having taken the decision last August to raise its public loan limit and to lower the deficit of the general budget, there are still fears that required reductions to public spending could cause damage to the US economy's growth, thus lengthening this recession and leading to unprecedented developments that could have negative outcomes on monetary and financial markets in several countries worldwide." Kuwait's Central Bank governor urged the need to focus on crucial matters in the reform process, like ensuring the importance of international economic cooperation in facing the crises, the need to control public budgets and the need to disallow the accumulation of risks by adopting the best risk-management policies. On Arab countries, Sheikh Salem urged the importance of applying the Basel III, set of global bank risk-management reforms. Kuwait is currently carrying out a number of decisions enabling the banking sector to work according to set guidelines particularly related to risk-management, and that ensure the importance of the internal assessment of capital, he noted. He also referred to the recent International Monetary Fund report on Kuwait that noted Kuwait's evident improvements in the banking sector, represented by a rise in capital from 17 percent at the end of 2009 to 19 percent at the end of 2010.
