March 8, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 7, 1427

KARACHI, March 7: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Tuesday organized a roundtable event to present the report on observance of standards and codes (ROSC) with respect to corporate governance in the country.

Some 60 senior executives from the country’s corporate sector representing banks, manufacturing companies, service industry, etc., attended the event to discuss how best to move the corporate governance reform agenda forward.

The programme manager, IFC Corporate Governance programme, Sebastian Molineus, speaking at a press conference after attending the roundtable meeting said the ‘ROSC corporate governance country assessment’ had very clearly outlined the corporate governance scenario prevailing in Pakistan.

He said: “It will go a long way in helping us take policy decisions and also enable investors and stakeholders to better understand the corporate governance climate of the country.”

Mr Molineus said further that in-depth analysis of the corporate governance would help the SECP channelize its efforts in right direction.

Kaiser Naseem of the IFC said the corporate sector was the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. It is the means of ensuring productive activity and job creation in the country. “However, in carrying out its activities, the corporate sector is faced with varied risks which can lead to crises. Therefore, it is of great importance that the corporate sector should have strong corporate governance practices,” he maintained.

With this in mind, the roundtable discussions, led by a panel of senior corporate executives and representatives of the SECP, centred on how best to develop and implement a national reform agenda for good corporate governance in Pakistan.

It was stressed that main findings of the corporate governance ROSC report on Pakistan should be taken as benchmark for legal and regulatory framework as well as practices, and the country should adopt OECD principles as the international reference point for good corporate governance.

It was also pointed out that there should be a dialogue on corporate governance among high-level participants in attendance, allowing those to share experience and lessons learned to develop common approach on how to launch and implement the corporate governance reforms in the country.