This week the spotlight is on employment and banking and finance developments in Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council has asked the Labour and Social Development Ministry to review Article 77 of the Implementing Regulations to the Labour Law. The aim is to address loopholes to ensure employees are not dismissed unfairly because of Article 77 of the law. The Council also asked the Ministry to review the Saudi Employment Strategy to increase the number of jobs allocated to women and increase their employment chances.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, Tadawul has announced further reforms designed to increase its appeal to investors. The aim is aid the Kingdom’s modernisation, improve market efficiency, boost investor security and access, and market liquidity in the Kingdom. Amongst other changes, the Independent Custody Model is updated to help ease Qualified Foreign Investor market access by providing increased trading limit flexibility for these clients. New procedures will also be introduced to mitigate credit risk associated with the settlement process for all participants. These changes come into force on 21 January 2018. There are also proposed changes to the methods for determining opening and closing prices.