Friday, April 23, 2010

Third SAFE Conference starts in Port Louis

Nepal has a great potential not only in tourism but also in capital market.
"Though Nepal has less than four per cent growth, it has a huge potential for tourism as it has eight of the ten highest mountains in the world," said Tanka Prasad Paneru, chairman of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) at the third South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) conference that is being held from April 22 at Maritime Hotel in Balaclava, Mauritius.
"The capital market also has a huge potential, he added.
The event hosted by MCX Stock Exchange (India) and Global Board of Trade (GBOT) Mauritius is being attended by Adnan Afridi, chairman of SAFE and more than 100 prominent experts from the financial markets and from exchanges of the South Asian region. The Mauritian experts and top executives are also taking part in the conference.
The guest of honour for the opening ceremony which was held on Thursday was Madhusudan Ganapathy, high commissioner of India in Mauritius, and chief guest of the evening was Milan Meetarbhan, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Financial Services Commission Mauritius.
Addressing the conference Afridi said that the conference aims at providing a platform for SAFE member exchanges, to enable industry representatives and capital market professionals to come up together to discuss various opportunities and challenges facing the markets.
Joseph Massey, managing director and chief executive officer of MCX Stock Exchange, highlighted on the progress that Indian markets has made.
Similarly, Dorji Phuntsho, chief executive officer at the Royal Securities Exchange in Bhutan, said that Bhutan is still a small economy. "We do not have much to offer," he said adding that it does not have many foreign investors.
The South Asian Capital Market Conferences were conceived a few years ago to promote the spirit of cooperation, enhance interaction and transact the normal business related to SAFE. Over the last few years, participants at SAFE conferences have come from different organisations including regulatory authority, central banks, mutual fund association representatives, brokerage houses and leading investment banks.
A ten member delegation led by Nepse chairman Tanka Prasad Paneru is in Mauritius to participate in a conference. Chairman Paneru also presented a paper on 'Promoting Investment in South Asian Region: Experience of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Mauritius and Nepal.'
Nepali delegation includes Nepse acting deputy chairman Sambhu Prasad Pant, Civil Capital Ltd's Bhisma Raj Chalise, Narayan Kumar Shrestha and Anil Prasad Pant, Growmore Merchant Banker's Kabindra Dhwoj Joshi, Prudential Finance Ltd's Bijaya Dev Pant, Investment Management Banker Ltd's Mukunda Bahadur Pradhan, Nepal Investment and Securities Trading Pvt Ltd's Umesh Regmi, ABC Securities Pvt Ltd's Nitesh Kumar Agarwal and Primo Securities Pvt Ltd's MD Meghnath Upadhyay.

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