More than 100 senior banking officials from the Mena region will take part in a major bankers conference being organised by Standard Chartered in Beirut on Monday.

The second 'Annual Thought Leadership Mena Bankers Conference' will see experts from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, GCC and Pakistan take part.

The conference aims to discuss the latest trends and issues facing the Mena banking industry and comes at an ideal time when cross border activity between the Mena region and markets in the US, China and South East Asia is expected to witness tremendous growth, said the organisers.

In line with this, several groundbreaking deals and partnerships will also be announced at the event.

Dr Riad Salameh, governor Banque Du Liban (Central Bank of Lebanon) will be the guest of honour at the event , which will also see the presence of Dr Jihad Azour, vice-president and senior executive advisor, Booz & Co Lebanon (former minister of finance, Lebanon) and other senior bankers and senior members of the Standard Chartered management.

This year, the conference will have a special session titled “China – The Growth Frontier” which will focus on the value proposition for bank clients out of China and specifically on the new developments around RMB.

The seminar will be inaugurated by a key note speech by Dr Salameh followed by a presentation on 'Global and Regional Economics by Marios Maratheftis, regional head of Research West at Standard Chartered.

Dr Azour will also chair a panel discussion on the 'World in 2011: What is in store for countries, companies and regions as the world struggles out of recession,' the 'Economic Shift from West to East: how important is Asia becoming for  Mena region' and the 'Global trends impacting Banks: customer behaviours, market size, competitors landscape and regulations.'-TradeArabia News Service