After the unexpected decline in the economy of the Middle East and Africa region over the last two years due to the significant changes in the global economy outlook, the year 2017 has shown more downfalls for the region due to a volatile political situation. Yet, the majority of prognostic outlooks are suggesting that the coming years will be more promising, especially after applying the value added taxes (VAT) which expected to become a major factor in economic growth.
Accordingly, the regulators and bankers must start identifying the major compliance requirements under VAT and how to achieve the highest levels of tax transparency and to control anti-money laundry (AML). In order to reach such accomplishment, the VAT implementation should prioritise the capabilities of the existing IT systems by using data analytics tools to monitor the accuracy of VAT treatments across transactions. This way it might help recognising all related threats and manage increasing risks. In the meantime, the contextualising technology innovation such as blockchain will aid massively against cyber threats.
Key focus areas include:
