"The Kingdom was first added to our supervisory body in September 2015, and since then we have worked closely with the capital markets to ensure that the reforms meet the highest standards," said FTSE Russell's CEO Mark Makepeace. He added that the FTSE Russell index will begin to include Saudi shares in March 2019 and will be fully completed by December 2019 and once process to be completed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be the largest market in the Middle East with almost five and a half billion US dollars of money flows into the Saudi Arabian market. He further said that the inclusion of the Saudi Stock Exchange on FTSE is the largest event in the emerging markets since 2001 and an important development for global investors since it will also be a boost for markets in the Middle East region. --SPA 12:45 LOCAL TIME 09:45 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w654095