Under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first edition of the Financial Sector Conference, which is part of the Financial Sector Development Program (a Vision 2030 program), will be held on April 24-25, 2019 in Riyadh. The Financial Sector Conference aims to become the most prominent Financial Sector Event locally and regionally. It seeks to increase the Saudi financial sector's contribution to GDP by building a diversified and stable financial sector and developing a sophisticated financial market, through inviting all concerned stakeholders in the Saudi financial sector to participate in a constructive dialogue. The two-day conference will feature a comprehensive agenda tailored to local, regional and international business and financial sector leaders. In addition, representatives from the public and private sectors, including the International institutions, leading globally-recognized consultancy and financial services firms, International rating agencies, financial professionals and experts in investment, stock markets, funding and insurance will also join the conference and will benefit from the topics to be presented. The conference aims to enhance the Kingdom's financial position as the largest financial market in the Middle East and to open doors to several investment opportunities within Vision 2030 programs, especially the initiatives of FSDP, in accordance with its three pillars: enabling financial institutions to support the private sector's growth, developing an advanced financial market, and enabling the financial planning in all segments of the society. The conference will highlight several topics, including: "financial sector capacity building, financial technology (FinTech), the financial sector competitiveness, Islamic finance, real estate finance, and the challenges and opportunities in the insurance market". The Finance Minister, Chairman of the FSDP committee Mohammed A. Al-Jadaan, announced: "The Financial Sector Conference will be the premier financial event in the Kingdom and the Middle East. It will attract decision makers from the financial sector and senior executives from financial institutions. This move will enable the Financial Sector Conference to become the most prominent financial sector event locally and regionally, as well as attract a number of important personalities in the financial sector who play an important role in the global economy". "The Kingdom is the largest financial market in the Middle East, in accordance with international indices, which is the primary reason for attracting foreign investment. Therefore, the Kingdom seeks to enable key industry leaders in finance, investment, insurance and banking to meet in one place to exchange experiences and information, discuss critical challenges, highlight important regulations and legislation, and review global best practices to develop the financial sector," Al-Jadaan added. The Financial Sector Conference will also host on its margin an exhibition and activities to showcase financial institutions' products and innovations. Moreover, the participants in the exhibition will have the opportunity to forge partnerships with interested stakeholders and attend workshops to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the financial sector, in addition to other topics of interest. The conference will be held in light of the Kingdom's fast-paced financial development. In the past years, Saudi Arabia has implemented international regulatory standards that led to the successful listing of the Saudi Stock Market in MSCI (in two phases, May and August 2019) and FTSE (In March 2019), as well as JPMorgan Emerging Markets Bond Index announcement of listing the Kingdom's international bond issues in its emerging markets' index. These developments come as part of the Kingdom's plans to enhance the financial balance, stimulate the investments and improve the Kingdom's financial situation in the world markets.
