Press Release

November 30, 2006

A seminar on “Corporate Governance Beyond Listed Companies” was organized jointly by Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG), and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) in Karachi, which was attended by a large number of eminent personalities from business and professional circles. Dr Salman Shah, Advisor to Prime Minister on finance was the Chief Guest at the event. He said that Pakistan’s economy is growing strongly and since it has transformed into a market based economy, companies, particularly well governed companies, are going to be its engine of growth in future. He appreciated this important initiative taken by CIPE jointly with PICG and ICAP and assured Government’s support.

In his welcome address Mr. Moin Fudda, Country Director, CIPE, said that non-listed sector has tremendous economic importance as compared to about 650 listed companies, there are about 50,000 non-listed companies, a diverse group, with both for-profit and not-profit entities of various legal forms and business size.

Mr. Zahid Zaheer, CEO, PICG, explained that there are various reasons for promoting good governance in non-listed companies including protection of the interest of minority shareholders and other stakeholders including employees.

While giving the key note address, Mr. Chris Pierce, stressed that a strong business case has to be made in favor of raising corporate governance standards for the success of the initiative. He said that, internationally, Corporate Governance codes for listed companies are an established practice and this phenomenon is now expanding to segments other than listed companies. He said that in Asia, Pakistan is the first country that has embarked upon such an initiative.

Mr. Razzak Dawood former Federal Minister of Commerce was of the view that good corporate governance is a journey not a destination. He also suggested taking a gradual approach in order to develop an effective set of guidelines that are acceptable to a larger segment of the business community in the non-listed sector.

There was a general consensus among the speakers that promotion of good governance in this sector should only be establishing voluntary good governance standards. Other speakers who shared their thoughts on different aspects of the topic were Mr Ebrahim Sidat, CEO Ford Rhodes, Mr. M.J Jaffar, Chairman CIPE Pakistan, Mr. Masud Naqvi, Senior Partner KPMG-Taseer Hadi, Mr. Zafar Khan, Chairman KSE, and Mr. Moeen Cheema, Assistant Professor, LUMS.

To start deliberation on this initiative, CIPE, PICG and ICAP organized a roundtable conference on Wednesday the 29th November which was chaired by Mr Razi Ur Rehman, Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. In the roundtable it was agreed that the partner organizations will establish a focus group to develop a strategic plan and will engage stakeholders in the consultative process to prepare the corporate governance guidelines for the non-listed sector