Aiming to establish the best Corporate Governance Practices and Increase the Level of Transparency and Disclosure
The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has launched "E-Assemblies" system, which helps the closed joint-stock companies, in all regions of the Kingdom, to submit their application for holding the meeting of the shareholders' assembly and to review the relevant agenda through the electronic links only, particularly via MCI e-portal:
aamal.sa.
This is one of the Ministry's initiatives to improve the trade and investment environment and to enhance the competitiveness in the Kingdom, in line with the National Transformation Program 2020 AD, and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 AD.
MCI has pointed out that the "E-Assemblies" System allows the transformational services of the assemblies and the companies’ call for holding the meetings of both the ordinary and extraordinary assemblies, beside reviewing the Assemblies’ agenda and the documents related to the items and other detailed information, in addition to the rules that the joint stock companies must consider when submitting the request electronically.
This service allows the company’s authorized person to enter relevant items in the meeting’s agenda and schedule the date, through a flexible and multi-use interactive system, and by using the consolidated electronic forms to facilitate the process of requesting the Assemblies meeting, beside the verification of the input information.
This service includes also sending a notice to the applicant about any remarks on the input items to be modified by the company in preparation for the General Assembly Meeting, as well as sending a notice to the Ministry’s representative, if his attendance is a must, also keeping the company’s authorized person informed about the importance of updating the results of shareholders' assembly via the e-system after the date of the assembly’s meeting.
Notably, the objectives of this "E-Assemblies" System are to establish the best corporate governance practices, as well as to increase the transparency and disclosure level, in addition to meeting the requirements of the companies through providing e-applications to assist in the preparation, displaying and keeping the data related to the shareholders’ assemblies.
Moreover, this system enables the investors and those interested to download and save easily the assemblies’ agenda, results and decisions.
This initiative aims to develop and organize the corporate sector in the Kingdom, as well as to protect the investors against any unfair and unsafe practices, also to achieve justice, efficiency and transparency in the transactions of the local investment environment. All that in accordance with the Ministry’s strategy for developing the commercial sector and removing any impediments or obstacles facing the investment activities, besides improving the statutory environment through the development of e-applications that would help the companies to achieve the highest level of commitment with the legislative regulations and applied instructions.
It is worth mentioning that, in early 2016 AD, the Ministry of Commerce and investment had launched the e-portal "Aamal", which allows the direct publication of the corporate and assemblies’ news, in addition to displaying a statement of the candidates of the corporate boards before the date of the assembly’s meeting, as well as allowing weekly updating to the assemblies’ schedules throughout the kingdom. Moreover, the Ministry is keen to review, develop and facilitate the procedures periodically, such as the establishment of Commercial Institutions and issuing the Commercial Registrations electronically.