Middle East businesses are lagging behind Europe when it comes to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies, the chief of multinational financial services company EFG Hermes has warned.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Forum in Riyadh, Karim Awad, CEO of the Egyptian-based firm, added that while governance has improved in the region over the last two decades, environmental and social frameworks have not been developing at the same pace.
Awad highlighted the difficulties some companies face when expanding these areas of their businesses, as investors often feel they are not being told “concrete” achievements.
He said: “ESG has not happened in the Middle East to the level of what happened in Europe and different places in the world.
“The ‘G’ in the past 20 years has evolved massively, with the amount of transparency and governance from companies, especially public listed ones, not near to what it was years ago, but it isn’t the same for ‘E’ and ‘S’.”
Awad added: “There is a lot of data and investors sometimes feel they are fooled by telling them stuff that is not concrete in terms of value.”
Another leading business figure, Christine Tsai, CEO and founding partner of venture capital firm 500 Global, also flagged up issues with ESG, saying that more than 80 percent of their portfolio want to integrate the policies "but there's no framework for early stage companies.”
Awad agreed with this, saying that a lack of “specific standards” is an issue for companies looking to expand their ESG policies.
