U.S. NATIONAL DAY 2023: AMERICAN BLOCK PARTY CELEBRATION AT U.S. CONSULATE JEDDAH

On February 15, 2023, the U.S. Consulate General in Jeddah celebrated the 247th anniversary of the United States’ independence. Consul General Faris Asad welcomed Mr. Mazen bin Hamad Al-Himali, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Makkah Region Branch as the guest of honor along with many guests from throughout the western region.

The theme of the event was “Block Party,” an American tradition in which people gather outdoors to enjoy music, food, and conversation with their local community. Since the original block parties in early 20th century New York until today, block parties have brought communities together in celebration of American diversity, creativity, and freedom. And on February 15, the U.S. Consulate General in Jeddah congregated with its Saudi friends to celebrate over eight decades of shared history and strong partnership.

Consul General Faris Asad, said of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, “Saudi Arabia’s creative economy especially here in the west is flourishing. Today we see investment in the arts, culture, and entertainment at the forefront of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 goals. The United States supports Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning creative ecosystem with programs to bolster emerging talent and help young Saudi voices create content grounded in shared values like women’s empowerment, environmental sustainability, and entrepreneurship.”

The United States is supporting the Kingdom’s efforts in the same spirit of partnership that has been a steadfast pillar of U.S.–Saudi ties for some eight decades. The United States remains committed to being Saudi Arabia’s partner of choice as the Kingdom works to realize Vision 2030.

Gprc Summit 2023 Riyadh

GPRC SUMMIT 2023 IN UAE & KSA TO EXAMINE

LOOPHOLES

In Risk Management In The Digital Era

With the fast-paced digitalisation and mounting regulations, many new risks have emerged, demanding firms to adapt their governance, risk and compliance (GRC) processes and capabilities, stay compliant, and enable agile and proactive decision-making.

A recent research by IBM has revealed that over 62% of organisations think the shift to digital has created gaps in their GRC processes with key challenges in security, privacy and data protection. Meanwhile, according to Risk.net, the top 10 operational risk losses for 2021 totalled 15 billion USD globally, with an enormous mass of these losses reported in institutional finance.

In the wake of these developments, the GPRC Summit 2023, hosted by Corporater - a global software company providing integrated GPRC solutions on a single platform - will bring together government, risk, compliance, audit and

Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) professionals from across industries to discuss key topics such as GRC-related challenges faced by today’s top organisations, digital transformation, business integrated GRC, strategy execution, solutions designed to enable organisations to achieve stronger performance and alignment in mission-critical priorities, and others.

According to Gartner, spending on information security and risk management products and services is forecasted to reach more than 188.3 billion USD in 2023. The Summit will analyse key topics in governance, risk and compliance concerning performance and strategy in the digital age, offering insights centred around the theme of ‘The Future of Effective Governance’.

Commenting on the need for effective governance systems, Mr. Ali Almuwaijei, Vice President - Governance, Compliance and Agility at Dubai Electricity Water Authority (DEWA), said, “Effective governance is key to navigating the complexities in an ever-changing and dynamic world. It ensures the stability, security and prosperity of individuals and corporations. We at DEWA are committed to achieving the vision of our wise leadership and government and strive to continuously improve our practices to cope with the rapid developments and changes.”

He added, “I am keen to discover what’s unfolding next; our world is continuously and rapidly changing, and we need to be agile along with the right toolkits in place to face opportunities and uncertainties.”

“Organisations must continuously revisit their operating models to ensure continued profitability and drive towards agility with internal investments towards integrated risk and performance management as part of their digital transformation journey,” commented

Marc Haberland - CEO & Founder of Clariba SEIDOR, a

leading technology consultancy that provides data-driven digital transformation solutions.

Meanwhile, Hassan Al Amri - GM of Risk Management & BCM, Mobily, KSA, said, “The evolution of digital business and the need of organisations to apply digital transformation have altered the risk landscape.”

“Through GPRC Summit 2023, we will deliberate and highlight the main challenges organisations usually face in their digital transformation journey and how risk Management can play an effective role in responding to those risks. Through the panel discussion, we will share how an organisation can assess its maturity in digital transformation and what the main risk management principles should be considered to support the digital transformation’s success. Moreover, we will share the best insights that risk management experts should accommodate to enable the transformation of a risk management framework to be more adaptive and customer-centric,” he added.