The Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG) delivered 13 more internationally certified directors under Part-IV of its Board Development Series Program (BDSP) on Wednesday.
The PICG, which was established in 2004 on not-for-profit and public-private-partnership basis to promote good corporate governance practices in the country, has so far held 15 training sessions under BDSP, which aims to ensure availability of a highly qualified cadre of directors for running the Boards of financial institutions in the fast maturing corporate sector of a developing country like Pakistan.
The Wednesday's concluding session of BDSP, where Fuad Azim Hashimi, President and Chief Executive Officer of PICG, and Sadia Khan, Executive Director of Delta Shipping, were the speakers, was attended by at least 13 board directors from different companies of the country. S.H.A Bukhari, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Mackinnons Pakistan, gave away the certificates, certified by RiskMetrics Group of USA.
Hashimi said that the trainees were taught 24 modules, which covered various aspects of the roles and responsibilities a board director should have to run a company. He told Business Recorder on sidelines of the program that the lectures given to the trainees included awareness on structure and composition of a board of directors, governance of human resource, issuance of financial statement, declaration of dividends, calling of annual general meetings etc.
He said that 137 participants were engaged with the PICG, out of which 43 had attained the certificates while eight others were undergoing the self-assessment test. With induction of the 13 new awardees and completion of self-assessment test by eight others, the number of certificates holder directors would reach 64, he said.
The PICG chief said that the Institute would soon have a fresh batch of trainees. It had training program for 73 other directors in pipeline. He also said that the Institute was planning to take at least three intakes and hold at least 24 full-day training programs annually. The PICG has also launched a quarterly newsletter, 'Quorum', to educate and create awareness among the business fraternity on corporate governance.
Earlier, Saima Akbar Ahmed, PICG's Manager, Research & Publications, told Business Recorder that the newsletter also aims at highlighting the activities of the Institute. She said that the newsletter would have a lead article, written by professionals or academicians and would contain latest issues pertaining to corporate governance in Pakistan.
Besides, the quarterly would also have a mention of the new members in PICG, comments from certified directors on various programs conducted by the Institute, feedback from different shareholders, important initiatives taken by the Institute, tidbits as an entertaining way to convey the PICG's message etc. Saima said.
The PICG, which has as its founding shareholders the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, State Bank, three bourses of the country, banking and insurance associations, apex bodies of the corporate businesses and non-bank financial institutions and some leading business educational institutions, is backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).