RIYADH — Mofarrej Alhaqbani, Vice-Minister of Labour, crowned the winners of the Pearl Initiative competition for students who have researched and prepared case studies on best practices applied in Saudi companies. The Pearl Initiative in collaboration with the King Khalid Foundation, announced that Yasmin Moosa, Laraine Anne Valles and Nada Rashid from Dar El Hekma College have won its inaugural University Student Case Study Competition, sponsored by the Al-Muhaidib Group. The Pearl Initiative is a GCC-based, private sector-led, not-for-profit organization set up to foster a corporate culture of transparency, accountability, good governance and best business practices in the Arab world. At an Awards Ceremony, sponsored by the Al Muhaidib Group, held at The King Khalid Foundation in Riyadh, the winning team shared with the audience their experiences and insights into the integrated reporting practices of one of Saudi Arabia's leading healthcare companies. Also giving keynote speeches at the Awards Ceremony were Princess Banderi A. R. Al Faisal, Director General King Khalid Foundation; Badr Jafar, Founder, Pearl Initiative; Dr Riyad Musa, Resident Representative, United Nations Development Program; and Abdulaziz Hamad Aljomaih, Managing Director – Investments, Aljomaih Group. Commenting on the award to the winning team, Princess Banderi, said: “We consider the Pearl Initiative to be the ideal model for joint action and cooperation, and we praise the major role that it has in implementing the values of corporate responsibility practices among those will be the future leaders, and it is this that encouraged King Khalid Foundation to support and contribute to the completion.” Mofarrej Alhaqubani said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia benefits from a large and talented youth population which is capable of innovation and excellence and who can work positively and with the ambition to advance our country. There is no doubt that Saudi youth have potential as great as their counterparts in other countries of the world, and their talents need support and guidance in order to shine and perform with creativity. “Our labour market is always demanding more youth that can act with creativity and my ministry will not hesitate to support such talent coming into the market. The youth can be a source of power and change, as we all work for the prosperity of the country. “We in the Ministry of Labour always try to follow an approach that is based on replacement and settlement, developing new employment mechanisms through three main axes. These are stimulating the demand for local jobseekers, improving the flow of supply to the labor market, and the alignment of supply and demand in order to generate the largest number of jobs to meet the demands of the market.” Badr Jafar, Founder, Pearl Initiative, said:”I would like to say an enormous thank you to all of the students who participated. Today's students represent the future of the region's business community, they are the men and women of tomorrow. John F Kennedy once said that ‘Leadership and learning are indispensible to each other.' “We hope that this competition has shown how this sentiment works in action, and it is my firm belief that as our future leaders, it is their actions that will have the greatest long term influence on the shaping of the business environment within our region and further afield.” The purpose of the competition is to contribute to documenting and increasing knowledge of corporate accountability and transparency practices as well as to inspire business students in the Kingdom to learn more about the application of integrity, ethics, responsibility, governance and transparency within a real life context. Additional goals of the competition were to recognize those Saudi based companies who are applying these principles to a high standard. The winning student team will be invited to spend three days in the UAE attending a thought leadership summit as well as other inspiring high-profile meetings and sessions. — SG
