The speakers in a two-day South Asian Federation of Accountants (Safa) conference have emphasised that poverty must be left behind and in its place an era of prosperity and abundance must be created.
The event was held in the Bangladeshi capital on July 15 and 16 with the theme 'Resource Mobilisation and Management of Economic Growth,' a statement said here on Monday. The conference was organised jointly by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) in Dhaka.
Representatives of the accounting bodies of the Saarc countries presented papers taking stock of what resources South Asia could create in order to build new frontiers of development. Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) President Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi presented a paper on 'Development of social sectors science, technology and entrepreneurship'.
He said 85 percent of the business firms represented small and medium enterprises (SMEs) but an accounting system for those had not been developed. He emphasised the need to encourage private initiative in the development of our social sector. "We also need to give private initiative more responsibility, space and freedom," he noted.
The SME sector should be developed in the urban areas and educated youths to be encouraged to initiate a process that could contribute to the gross domestic product and help in solving the unemployment menace in the South Asian region, Shabbar Zaidi suggested. Safa President Sunil Goyal, Conference Committee Chairman Jamaluddin Ahmad, ICAB President ASM Nayeem and ICMAB President Satipati Moitra also spoke. Around 600 delegates from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal participated in the Safa conference.