Sustainability

Reaffirming its commitment to contributing to the Kuwait National Development Plan, or New Kuwait 2035, Boursa Kuwait has aligned its long-term business strategy with the country’s vision for a sustainable future where it would evolve into a financial, cultural and institutional leader in the region. Boursa Kuwait recognizes that it can play a crucial role in materializing the overarching objectives of the nation’s ambitious roadmap through promoting and advancing corporate sustainability practices in capital markets and by creating an investment climate that is capable of attracting funds and encouraging sustainable investments. This guiding principle provides the framework for the company’s corporate sustainability strategy for 2019-20.

At the end of 2017, Boursa Kuwait made a formal commitment to drive corporate sustainability in financial markets by becoming a member of the United Nations-led Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative, which is a platform for the exchange of experience and knowledge that helps broaden the collaborations between exchanges and all market participants. This step helped increase transparency among companies and improving performance in environmental, social and governance (ESG) endeavors, as well as encouraging sustainable investment

Vision

Boursa Kuwait aims to be responsible and committed to its sustainable development as well as the community in which it operates, by ensuring a positive contribution to the three areas of Education, Community, and Environment, and to promote the adoption of socially impactful and accountable practices in our surrounding communities.

These three key areas are fully aligned with the New Kuwait 2035 strategy pillars, which aim to elevate the overall status of the nation’s ‘Global Positioning,’ ‘Creative Human Capital,’ ‘Effective Civil Service’ and ‘Sustainable Diversified Economy’.

Strategy

With a view to creating long-term value for the company’s stakeholders in the economic, social and environmental dimensions and ensuring that all corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are aligned with its sustainability objectives, Boursa Kuwait has put in place a three-phased strategy to align, create and integrate.

This strategy stipulates ensuring initiatives apply and fall in line with the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), industry best practice standards and investor expectations, creating strong and sustainable partnerships that ultimately achieve success and allow Boursa Kuwait to leverage the capabilities and strengths of other companies or organizations that have experience in different fields, and integrating sustainability efforts with the company culture, in order to achieve longevity and an ongoing impact that is carried on and instilled in the day-to-day operations of the stock exchange.

Strategic Pillars

Education, Community, and Environment are the three pillars of the corporate sustainability strategy. The ‘Education’ pillar envisions a robust capital market ecosystem where all stakeholders are fully equipped with the knowledge and skill required to be an active player in the nation’s exchange and capital markets, while the ‘Community’ pillar embodies Boursa Kuwait’s commitment to giving back to the community. The company’s shared responsibility to minimize the adverse impact that its operations may have on the environment is reflected in the ‘Environment’ pillar, which also aims to raise the awareness of the local and surrounding communities on the best practices to decrease harm and preserve the environment.

For an overview of the sustainability initiatives rolled out by the company throughout the years, please check out the Annual Reports section of the website.

Contractor Code of Conduct

Boursa Kuwait is committed to conducting its business in an ethical, legal, and socially responsible manner. The company engages with its contractors to share this commitment and has established this Contractor Code of Conduct (“Code”). Although there may be different legal and cultural environments applicable to its contractors, Boursa Kuwait encourages our contractors to comply with this Code in order to do business with Boursa Kuwait or any of its subsidiaries.

This Code applies to all vendors, suppliers, contractors, and sub-contractors (collectively, “Contractors”) that have entered into a contractual agreement to provide goods or services to Boursa Kuwait.

This Code is intended to reduce contractors’ risk concerning Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics. It adheres to international standards and practices in this field. This document will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

We encourage contractors to maintain policies, procedures, and practices to address these topics. We also encourage our contractors to implement efficient management systems, utilizing internationally recognized standards on the following matters:

Boursa Kuwait’s Privacy Policy by:

Adhering to data privacy laws and complying with contractual requirements on confidentiality and information security
Checking Boursa Kuwait’s policies published on the website on a periodic basis

Environmental Protection by:

Formulating environmental protection policies
Adopting appropriate environmental management standards and systems to assess the environmental impact of their business operations, products, and services
Implement environmental management measures to reduce the negative environmental impact of business operations, products, and services

Employee Rights and Interests by:

Desisting from any form of forced or coerced labor
Not discriminate against employees and applicants for employment on the basis of gender, age, marital or maternity status, ethnicity, race, religion, or similar factors
Signing employment contracts that meet local legal requirements for all employees
Providing employees with remuneration and benefits that are not below the local statutory minimum levels and paying employees on time
Pay compensation for overtime work in accordance with local laws (length of overtime work should not exceed the statutory working time limit)
Informing employees about the applicable work policies to protect workers’ rights and interests, health, and safety
Adopting appropriate occupational health and safety standards and systems to reduce occupational injuries and occupational diseases
Establishing appropriate communication mechanisms and grievance procedures whereby employees can express their grievances to suppliers’ management

Business Ethics by:

Avoiding participation in or knowingly benefit from any kind of corruption, extortion, or bribery
Adhering to applicable anti-money laundry, anti-corruption, and anti-bribery laws, directives, and regulations that govern operations in the countries in which they operate
Complying with anti-trust and other competition laws
Disclosing any potential or actual conflict of interest to Boursa Kuwait
Acting in accordance with national and international foreign trade control laws pertaining to business transactions with countries, companies, and persons, and the transfer of goods and services, software, or technology between countries
Exercising quality and sustainability due diligence when designing, manufacturing, and testing products or providing services

Human Rights:

Boursa Kuwait is committed to its corporate responsibility to respect human rights and encourages its contractors to acknowledge and not tolerate any human rights violations in the following: