ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has finalised a framework for venture capital which will be issued by the end of next month, says its chairman Razi-ur-Rehman.
Talking to Dawn on Thursday, he said that there was a big scope for issuing the venture capital which would be run by the local and foreign specialists.
“The proposed framework will attract lot of funds and the only need is to have the experts and professionals to enter in the field,” he said.
He also called for establishing an informal implementation group on venture capital comprising the stakeholders to identify key issues.
He said he had held a meeting in Karachi with the officials of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) and the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) on Wednesday and asked them to provide their assistance in promoting venture capital especially by bringing in international expertise.
Chief Executive Officer of the Pakistan Business Council Salim Raza and CSF Chief Executive Officer Arthur Bayhan also attended the meeting.
According to the details of the meeting released here by the CSF office, Mr Arthur Bayhan informed the SECP chief that Pakistan’s economy had yet to attain its full potential and growth of the venture capital industry may help reach this potential. The meeting also discussed the way forward to improve the venture capital in Pakistan.
Highlighting the importance of venture capital, the PBC CEO said that Pakistan presents a number of investment opportunities, especially in energy, engineering, agriculture and health sectors.
He further elaborated that the identified sectors were supported by very favourable and rapidly improving conditions in the market and the country’s investment policies were generally recognised as some of the most favourable in the region.
CSF in collaboration with the PBC will also support the SECP in its efforts to improve the legal framework surrounding venture capital. Support for CSF is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the US government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health and governance.
IT FIRMS: Meanwhile, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) managing director Yousaf Hussain on Wednesday said that the board was targeting $200 million in venture capital by 2011 and would launch an Entrepreneurship Development Programme to assist IT companies in assessing overseas venture capitalists, building boards of advisors and directors and undertaking initial public offering (IPO).
Recently, two leading US-based Venture Capital (VC) firms ePlanet Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) provided funds to Naseeb Networks, a local IT firm, which spoke volumes of the trust placed in the potential of the Pakistan IT industry by foreign investors.
The PSEB MD said these investments demonstrated an abiding confidence on the local Information Technology industry by the international financers. “Just like firms in other industries, IT firms also require funding for growth; however traditional financiers like banks the world over do not prefer lending to smaller IT firms. This is why venture capital is so essential to the IT industry,” he added.
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