HE Maqbool Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Capital Market Authority chaired on Saturday the fourth and last meeting of the Board for 2009. The meeting approved the projected budget of CMA and Muscat Securities Market for next year.
Significance: While still broadly dependent on state spending for development, the business sector's economic autonomy on a day-to-day level has increased significantly, as it increasingly resembles private sectors in mature economies. It is far ahead of the business class in most of the rest of the Middle East.
The opening day of ‘FIKR8,’ the eighth edition of the annual conference of the Arab Thought Foundation, witnessed corporates from Arab countries expressing solidarity with Dubai in the wake of the current debt difficulties, and offering support to initiatives launched by the emirate to revive the economy.
HE Maqbool Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Capital Market Authority chaired on Saturday the fourth and last meeting of the Board for 2009. The meeting approved the projected budget of CMA and Muscat Securities Market for next year. 
Significance: While still broadly dependent on state spending for development, the business sector's economic autonomy on a day-to-day level has increased significantly, as it increasingly resembles private sectors in mature economies. It is far ahead of the business class in most of the rest of the Middle East. 
The opening day of ‘FIKR8,’ the eighth edition of the annual conference of the Arab Thought Foundation, witnessed corporates from Arab countries expressing solidarity with Dubai in the wake of the current debt difficulties, and offering support to initiatives launched by the emirate to revive
the economy. 
