KARACHI, Dec 23: Sher Afghan Malik, President of Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP), has pointed towards the improvement in the stock exchanges in the country.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, he was optimistic that a further headway would be made in this very field of activity. The ICMAP chief pointed out that the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) which consists of eight member bodies operating in Saarc region, had also performed extremely well and that a lot of progress was also being made in this sphere of activity.

He said that the Saarc itself was also moving ahead in the right direction. "We accountants are playing a positive role towards producing qualified personnel in the field for the development of the economy as well as the progress of the country," he remarked.

Mr Afghan pointed out that a delegation of the ICMAP had recently attended an international conference in Sri Lankan capital Colombo. The moot on "Corporate governance - challenges in implementation" was jointly organized by the SAFA and the Sri Lankan Institute of Chartered Accountants.

The conference was followed by an Assembly meeting of the delegates of SAFA and was presided over by Badruddin Fakhri of Pakistan. Nurul Hassan of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh was unanimously elected as president of SAFA for the year 2005. Mr Badruddin, the outgoing SAFA president, was elected as Technical Adviser for the year 2005. -APP