The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in collaboration with the FTSE Group recently arranged a 'Pakistan equity roundtable' in London, highlighting reforms in the country's stock exchanges and demutualisation process.
A spokesperson on Monday said that the purpose of the roundtable was to create awareness amongst the international community about developments in the Pakistani capital market and investment opportunities, says a press release.
He said the FTSE Group announced the result of its annual country classification review, whereby Pakistan was to be removed from the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (GEIS) in June 2008. However, following high-level consultations, dialogues and efforts by the SECP, FTSE Group deferred its decision to remove Pakistan from the GEIS.
During the course of dialogues with the FTSE Index Review committee, it transpired that the FTSE Group was not aware of the wide ranging capital market reforms that had been introduced by the SECP over the past few years. The FTSE Group also suggested to the SECP to hold roundtables and conferences globally especially in the United Kingdom, United Sates of America, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc, to acquaint capital market institutions, asset managers and index providers with the capital market reforms introduced by SECP.
The spokesperson said that the Pakistan capital market has evolved over the last couple of years into a very transparent and equitable market place. It is essential to disseminate this well kept secret to the international investor base.
The SECP has planned to launch a global awareness campaign in order to acquaint the international community with capital market developments and investment prospects in Pakistan. The London roundtable being the first in the series of awareness programmes attracted a large group of people from the UK financial sector.
The Pakistani delegates delivered comprehensive presentations highlighting the regulatory framework, recent capital market reforms in Pakistani market and trading and settlement procedures. Such roundtables and seminars will greatly assist in refurbishing the image of Pakistani capital market in the international community, the spokesperson added.
He said that the roundtable was followed by a number of high-level meetings with the London Stock Exchange, the Futures and Options Association, Pakistan Britain Trade and Investment Forum and leading fund managers. The SECP explored various opportunities with the London Stock Exchange in developing new products and systems for the Pakistani capital market. The fund managers expressed their interest in the Pakistani capital market and a very positive response was received from them based on the reforms introduced by the SECP. The move towards corporatisation and demutualisation of the Pakistani stock exchanges was also appreciated.
The Pakistani delegation to UK other than the SECP comprised representatives of Karachi Stock Exchange, Central Depository Company, National Clearing Company, custodial banks and leading brokerage houses, he added.-PR