Qatar unveils CSR index plans

Qatar is to establish a corporate social responsibility index for companies on its stock exchange.

The Gulf emirate’s proposed index will require its listed companies, which together boast a market capitalization of $110billion (£690bn, €790bn), to prove ‘their social commitment and application’.

Details have not yet been announced, but the index would be the first of its kind in the Gulf area and would follow similar indices in other countries with previously minimal CSR records such as South Korea and the eastern European former communist nations.

Mohamed Hassan al-Saadi, of Qatar’s business ministry, said the index ‘would strengthen the competitiveness of free market principles in the country’.

Another government spokesperson added that ‘the private sector should seriously commit itself as a full partner to the standards of corporate social responsibility’, warning that companies must take the issue ‘seriously’.

The Qatari business community has welcomed the proposals.