ACCA globally has launched the campaign 'Accountants for Small Business' which emphasises the importance of business formalisation in emerging and frontier markets as a driver of economic development. ACCA has prided itself for over 100 years on being the professional body most closely aligned with small business and enterprise.
ACCA Pakistan and SECP joined hands to hold a seminar on 'Promoting Corporatisation' at the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club. Haroon A Jan, Head of ACCA Lahore said that ACCA and SECP are natural allies on the agenda of corporatisation. Formalisation helps governments achieve predictable revenues and the accounting profession is the natural route to it.
He also said that the event represents ACCA's interest in SME's. We believe that it is our responsibility to safeguard the interest of accountants that become entrepreneurs and run or join SME's. Communicating the benefits of corporatisation to SME's will do exactly that.
Muhammad Ali, Chairman SECP has said that there is a need to facilitate corporatisation in the country. Only 2.0 percent of the total businesses are coporatised in Pakistan. United Kingdom with less than half of Pakistan's population has two million registered companies against the 61,000 registered companies in Pakistan.
The panellists at the seminar Liaqat Ali Dola, Additional Registrar, Corporatisation & Compliance Department, SECP, Ahmad Mobeen Khwaja FCCA, Deputy Registrar, Corporatisation & Compliance Department, SECP and Sheeraz Zafar FCCA, Manager Corporate Reporting, Allied Bank Limited were questioned by Asad Feroze FCCA, Partner, Junaidy Asad Shoaib chartered accountants on various important issues pertaining to succession planning, access to capital, regulatory frameworks, and tax implications. Ahmad Mobeen Khwaja and Liaqat Ali Dola explained the procedure to register with SECP, the processes are simple, and can be processed in reasonable time. Once a company is registered working is more organised with better internal controls and disclosures.
All these areas are critical for a going concern and help ensure sustainable operations. Sheeraz Zafar felt that entrepreneurs would find it a lot easier to access funding sources after registering with SECP. It would also protect their private assets in a much better way. We can safely say that corporatisation is the need of the hour and an answer to many challenges faced by entrepreneurs working in a highly regulated banking industry and an environment with fairly slow economic growth.-PR