Corporate Governance in Arab Countries

Diploma Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: Sehr Gut, University of Vienna, language: English, abstract: English:In today´s business world corporate governance has become one of themost discussed and most important matters. Corporate governancecriteria have been put right in the middle of investment decisions -especially in emerging markets. In addition to that, a series of events likebusiness scandals, financial crises or business failures in the last 20 yearshas made corporate governance a key point in the business community inemerging markets, developing countries and economies in transition.There exists no general definition for the term corporate governance.Basically it can be viewed as a set of principles and rules by which acompany is directed and controlled. Many countries have developed goodcorporate governance principles to improve the relationship between theshareholders of a company and the management. Factors like financialdisclosure, more rights for shareholders and independent boards arecrucial for investors who are looking for a stable growth of companies.Countries in the MENA region have put the implementation of such soundcorporate governance codes in the middle of their agenda. Their aim is tocreate better economies and consequently a more attractive investmentclimate for possible investors in the future.This thesis tries to give the reader an insight into today´s state ofcorporate governance in the Middle East and North Africa countries. Thediscussion is based on a survey which has been undertaken by theHawkamah Institute for corporate governance in Dubai which focuses onthe establishment of good corporate governance codes in this region.