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Whilst the Middle East and particularly the economies of those countries that go to make up the GCC are now growing again, we have been surprised at how slow the wider corporate governance and more specifically the internal audit recruitment markets have been to recover. Recruitment however is a form of investment which requires confidence. We believe that confidence is being undermined by a lack of transparency. Whilst credit related losses in Europe and the United States were greater during the financial crisis, they were more readily identified and quantified. This provided certainly and allowed informed decisions to be made. Within the GCC, uncertainty comes from lower levels of transparency and questions about governance. The irony of this should perhaps not be lost.

However, moving into the final quarter of 2010 there are now clear indications that confidence is returning. As the fallout from troubled groups such as Dubai World is resolved and as state backed entities return to the credit markets, investor confidence is being boosted. We anticipate that this return of confidence should help ensure that establishing effective corporate governance is given the priority it requires if the region is to be fully integrated into the global economy.

This should inevitably increase the demand for corporate governance staff and will result in opportunities for both internal auditors already living and working in the region and for those who would like to relocate to the region.

Barclay Simpson’s Middle East Interim Market Report 2010 takes a detailed look at the events of 2010 and assesses the prospects for corporate governance in the rest of 2010 and into 2011.

To download the full report, simply click on the graphic or choose from the following links to go straight to specific sections of the report:
  1. Introduction
  2. Market Overview
  3. Market Commentary
  4. Analysis by Sector
  5. Analysis by Country
  6. Salaries
  7. Outlook


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