Lahore (Nut Desk)
ACCA Pakistan continues the momentum, converging thought leaders at “Pakistan Leadership Conversation 2022” to discuss key drivers for a Sustainable Growth for Pakistan.
Lahore & Karachi: ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Pakistan, in collaboration with SEED Ventures, closed a successful series of its flagship conferences Pakistan Leadership Conversation (PLC 2022) in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore respectively. The fourth edition of PLC centered on the theme “Rethinking our world: Sustainable growth for Pakistan” and brought together leading policy makers, thought leaders, corporate influencers, academia and business operators for a dialogue centered on the power of digital, sustainability/ESG, ethics and future ready workforce.
In Karachi, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Mr. Nadeem Hussain, Founder Planet N Group of Companies/Chairman Pakistan Fintech Network attended the event as Guest of Honour. Speaking on the topic of Accelerated Financial Inclusion, he said, “Digitalization plays an imperative role in enhancing social mobility and these shifts can not be made without understanding the customer need and creating the simplest customer journey.” Muhammad Ali Tabba, CEO Lucky Cement Limited as the Guest of Honour shared his thoughts on Opportunity and Size – Fast Tracking the investment landscape saying, “The distribution of energy, its mix and privatization is imperative for our growth agenda. Moreover, enabling make in Pakistan environment will help import substitution fueling employment, self-reliance and sustainable economic growth driven by exports. As a part of her keynote address, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Chairperson PSX and PICG spoke on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, while Re-calibrating our Practices for Sustainable Growth she said, “As Pakistan sets to become part of global economies through BRI / CPEC and export focused, strategy – relevance of diversity, equity and inclusion is extremely critical for all stakeholders to achieve the recognised global standards of performance and excellence.” The first session, titled, “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Re-calibrating Practices for Sustainable Growth” featured Ahsan Jamil, CEO, Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance; Farrukh H. Khan, Managing Director & CEO, Pakistan Stock Exchange; Maheen Rahman, CEO – InfraZamin Pakistan; Mohammad Shoaib, CEO – Al Meezan Investment Management Limited; Navid Fazil, CEO – Interloop Limited moderated by Sadia Dada, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, K-Electric. The second session was led by a key note address from Sadia Khan, Commissioner – Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan who shared her thoughts on the topic, ““Ethics, Technology, ESG – Accelerating national economic transformation”. She said, “”Ethical behaviour is at the core of good governance and sustainability. The importance of ESG and sustainability has been rightfully amplified in a short time with increased focus in the areas of financial reporting, investing and business practices.” Adding on to the guidelines issued by SECP on CSR, she added, “We introduce voluntary guides to enable good business practices that add value to the community”. The talk was moderated by Hena Sadiq, Partner Audit and Assurance – Yousuf Adil Chartered Accountants; Rana Nadeem, Partner – KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co.; Saquib Ahmad, Country Managing Director – SAP Pakistan; Shahzad Shahid, Group CEO – TPS Online; Zeeshan Shahid, Director Risk and Compliance – BYKEA Mr. Sharif Tabbani, Owner & Principal – Tabbani’s School of Accountancy also joined the event and spoke on the Talent, Technology & Transformation.
In Lahore, Salman Shah, Advisor to the Chief Minister of Punjab on Economic Affairs and Planning & Development attended the event as the Guest of Honour. Speaking on the topic, “Re-thinking Sustainable Investment Landscape in Pakistan”, he said, “Government has shifted greater focus on sustainable development and enabling upskilling of businesses to benefit from e-market places like Amazon and Ali Baba. Clean and renewable energy is another imperative to the growth of our economy”. He further added, “Creating business hubs in Punjab with demographic sectoral focus is a key government priority to help create job opportunities, enhance economic activity and increase exports”. Also present as the Guest of Honour was Hashim Jawan Bakht, Finance Minister, Government of Punjab who shared his thoughts on – Talent, Technology & Transformation, he said, “Sustainable and inclusive economic growth is dependent upon agile, data driven and resilient government decision making. Recent policy improvements for technology sector is set to help bring in valuable foreign exchange. We must continue focus on digitalization and amplify ease of doing business to sustain the growth momentum”.
