SAFE EC meeting in Katmandu from July 6

In order to move forward on the agenda of regional financial integration within the South Asian Federation, the Executive Committee of the South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) will hold its next meeting at Katmandu, Nepal from July 6-8, 2011.
According to an announcement of SAFE Secretary General Aftab Ahmad Chaudhry, the SAFE EC will hold detailed deliberations with the Saarc Secretariat about the steps needed to be taken for economically integrating the region via a progressive programme of harmonisation of the national regulatory standards within the region. The meeting will be significant, as it will discuss the ways and means of liberalising the cross border frameworks related to investment advice, brokerage, dealing and management of portfolio investment functions. He said one of the most significant initiatives to be discussed at the upcoming meeting would be to liberalise the access to the regional exchange memberships for all South Asian brokerage firms regardless of their domicile. He said in future the investors may have the ability to send their trading orders and get the execution of their transactions according to the rules to be framed by SAFE in consultation with the Saarc Secretariat.
Aftab further stated that the fundamental principles for integrating the regional markets would be transparency, equal treatment and equal access to all the members of the Exchanges of the region. The SAFE SG stated that in order to achieve regional integration of the region's capital markets, it was also must that all countries in the regions should have similar market regulatory standards and frameworks for which the work is envisaged to begin under the assistance of the USAID Pakistan. Aftab stated that the upcoming project would benefit the regional markets a great deal and the regional investors would be able to place their faith in the regional companies.
The SAFE comprises of 32 member entities from South Asia, Bahrain, Mauritius and UAE. SAFE is the recognised body of the SAARC and is a network exchange association of the World Federation of Exchanges. The permanent Secretarial of the Federation is located in Islamabad, Pakistan and serves as the central co-ordinating office for the achievement of SAFE's objectives and the implementation of various programs/projects. Aftab Ahmad Chaudhry, serves as the regular Secretary General and Ms Farzin Khan as the Deputy Secretary General of the Federation.
The executive committee of the SAFE is also expected to give its approval to the launch of financial literacy and capacity building initiative related to investor relations, standardisation of financial reporting framework and Initial Public Offering (IPO) pipeline development initiatives. In this respect, Mss Ayla Majeed, a famous financial management consultant is likely to be given the responsibility to spearhead these initiatives under the guidance of the SAFE Secretary General, Aftab added.