Islamic finance specialist Mohammed Al-Jadaan said, as he took on the role: 'The CMA [Capital Markets Authority] is committed to open the market to foreign investors in the first half of this year. This decision is very important and has huge benefits, and we have institutional commitment to it...I look forward to increasing the number of listed companies...The stock market needs a larger number of listed firms to cope up with the huge size of the Saudi economy...The CMA will exert all possible efforts to go ahead with improvement.'

Reshuffle

Mr Jadaan was awarded the role when the new king, King Salman, made a cabinet reshuffle. He has experience in working with international investment banks on regulatory and structuring issues. Source: Yahoo News