Nasdaq Keen to Boost Mideast Business Links
In an unprecedented move, Nasdaq, New York’s Stock Exchange, invited John Duke Anthony, president of the National Council on US-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) along with a delegation from Qatar, led by Qatar’s Economy and Commerce Minister Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al-Thani, to ring the opening bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square.
The delegation was joined by Matilda Cuomo, the former First Lady, and current First Mother of the State of New York (her son, Andrew Cuomo, is the current governor of New York, her husband was a former governor) and longtime advocate on behalf of women, children and families.
“To the best of one’s knowledge, this is a milestone in which an Arab-American organization was asked to participate in the marketplace opening of a Nasdaq trading day,” John Duke Anthony, told Arab News.
“This marks the first time that a GCC country also was invited to participate, and that the NCUSAR was invited to do so as a co-equal partner at the ceremony,” said Anthony.
(For more than 30 years, the National Council on US-Arab Relations, NCUSAR — a Washington, DC-based non-profit, non-governmental, educational organization – has worked to improve Americans’ knowledge and understanding of the Arab, Mideast and the Islamic world.)
Nasdaq, the world’s largest exchange company, has worked with NCUSAR to ameliorate their business connections in the Middle East.
As the creator of the world’s first electronic stock market, Nasdaq technology powers more than 70 marketplaces in 50 countries, and 1 in 10 of the world’s securities transactions.
Nasdaq is home to more than 3,400 listed companies with a market value of over $8.5 trillion and more than 10,000 corporate clients.
As a global exchange company, Nasdaq has welcomed many organizations — including public and private companies, non-profit, philanthropic and NGOs — to Times Square to celebrate their milestones by ringing the Nasdaq bell.
The timing of the NCUSAR/Qatar bell ringing ceremony coincided with the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, which is the main policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations, and comprises of all 193 UN members.
NCUSAR was part of a delegation in New York for the UN General Assembly and ClimateWeek that included Qatar’s Economy Minister Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al-Thani.
In the last few years, Nasdaq has welcomed representatives from the region.
In 2013, Nasdaq hosted Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdulaziz Ahmad Al-Saud with Najeeb Ghauri, CEO and chairman of NetSol Technologies Inc. (NTWK) to celebrate NetSol’s 15th anniversary as a publicly traded company and its joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Atheeb Group, where Prince Abdulaziz Ahmad Al-Saud serves as founder and chairman.
Earlier this month, it welcomed the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX), in celebration of EGX’s contract renewal agreement to use Nasdaq OMX’s X-stream trading technology.
Barbara G. B. Ferguson
Arab News