Yousef Hussain Kamal named best finance minister in MENA

Qatar's Minister of Economy and Finance HE Yousef Hussain Kamal, has received the prestigious Euromoney Emerging Markets award for Best Finance Minister in the Middle East and North Africa 2011. HE Kamal received the award during a ceremony held on September 26 in Washington DC on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank Meetings, now in progress here. The annual Emerging Markets Central Bank Governor and Finance Minister of the Year awards recognize the leading policymakers in each region of the world. The awards, given each year to five economic regions covering the Americas, Emerging Europe, The MENA region, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, are chosen by Emerging Markets'' editorial team. The winners are announced in Emerging Markets'' daily newspapers published at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings each year. Emerging Markets is part of Euromoney Institutional Investor plc. The judges considered economic performance as well as heard the opinions of many leading global bankers and investors when making their final decision. The story of HE Yousef Hussain Kamal''s success is spread over more than three decades in government service when he joined as section chief within the department of Financial Affairs, Ministry of Finance & Petroleum in 1973. He also held key posts in the ministry such as Director of Financial Affairs in 1988 and Under Secretary of Ministry of Finance, Economy & Commerce in 1993. He assumed his current post in 1998. HE the Qatari minister has served as Qatar''s Minister of Finance since 1998 and was given an additional ministerial portfolio becoming Minister of Economy and Finance in 2008. A leading Arab authority on finance and economics in his own right, he also represents the State of Qatar as delgation Governor at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Arab Monetary Fund, The Islamic Development Bank and the OPEC Fund. During his tenure, under the guidance and vision of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar’s economy has thrived, recording the highest growth rates in the world since 2005. At the same time, the country has firmly established itself as the leading supplier of LNG in the world.(