In collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the World Bank Group, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) conducted Faculty Development Program (FDP) seminars of two full-day each at the Marriott Hotel Islamabad and at the Pearl Continental hotel in Lahore. The events hosted more than 120 management sciences academics from various universities in Islamabad, Lahore and the neighboring cities.
Under the MOU dated May 5, 2016, signed between the HEC and SECP, these programs are a continuation of a series of such programs, which the SECP began in the middle of 2016. The objective of the programs is to bring a higher level of awareness among the country’s academic circuit about the areas being regulated by the SECP and the product suite available to investors for making legitimate and safe investments. To better safeguard existing and future investors against financial frauds and for the overall growth of the financial sector and the economy in the long run transference of this awareness through academics at the tertiary level and later at the secondary level is crucial.
Practitioners and subject matter experts from the World Bank Group, Arif Habib Dolmen REIT, Nael Capital (Pvt) Limited, Meezan Bank, PMEX, Jubilee Life Insurance Company Limited and NAFA facilitated the seminar. The speakers conducted interactive sessions on equity and capital market, debt and bond market, commodity market, mutual funds and voluntary pension system, REITS, microfinance, investment banking, SECP’s enforcement regime and investor grievance handling and Islamic finance.
The financial landscape was discussed with the help of latest statistics and mini case studies. Each speaker presented a SWOT analysis of her/his segment, made suggestions for the growth of respective segment and there was a lively dialogue between attending market participants, the SECP representatives and the academics.
The participant universities included Allama Iqbal Open University, Bahria University, COMSATS, Lahore Business School, FAST, NUST, NUML, PIDE, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Riphah University, University of Science and Technology, Bannu, University of Malakand, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Preston University, CECOS University, Hailey College of Commerce Punjab University, NCBA&E Business School, School of Business and Economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Imperial College of Business Studies, Lahore, Qarshi University Lahore and Government College University, Faisalabad.
The SECP is committed to its collaboration with HEC and the academic sector of Pakistan to extend awareness at all levels through trained faculty members. To achieve this objective SECP in collaboration with the World Bank group has developed structured material and training toolkits, which were shared with the participants for their continuing assistance. Attending faculty members found the seminar valuable and expressed enthusiasm to take this drive forward. In addition, many university representatives expressed the desire to sign investor education MOUs with the SECP, which was warmly welcomed.
