CSE to train Maldivian exchange on going public in Sri lanka

Sunday Times:

A Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) team will train their Maldivian counterparts this month on (Maldivian firms) going public on the CSE along with different aspects on clearing, trading and settlement, officials said.”The Maldivian companies want to trade securities in the CSE in US dollars. They are interested in dollar to dollar trades, which we are trying to facilitate,” Vajira Kulatilleke, Chairman CSE told the Business Times on the sidelines of the 30 year celebrations of the CSE on Wednesday.

He added that Central Bank approval for this in terms of Exchange Control is pending. “This year’s budget has encouraged it and we want to pursue this,” he said. The CSE is also extending its reach beyond borders to cooperate commercially with its peer exchanges in the region.Mr. Kulatilleke added that similar efforts such as in the Maldives will be explored in countries like Bangladesh and Bhutan. “These are long-term. First we want to encourage the Maldivian firms to list.” The CSE’s plans to set up a separate trading board for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) is progressing fast, he said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his address at the celebrations said that if the Port City project gets underway; there will be some sort of landfill in that area that could have the makings of a special financial and business district which will be a unique one in South Asia.He noted that the volatile global economic and political scenarios will determine the fate of the global economy including Sri Lanka in the coming year, he said, adding that that it was important to maintain Sri Lanka’s growth at 6.5 per cent next year and aspire to increase it to 8-9 per cent thereafter. According to him some public sector entities would be listed next year. “We are keeping 2020 deficit target for SOEs to make a contribution to the national economy and to State revenue

We are also paying attention to the fundamentals of a highly-competitive social market economy, which will include free education and health, improved public transportation and subsidised housing available for the people,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said.He said that Sri Lanka requires an efficient and transparent stock market and urged the relevant authorities in the CSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission to address issues relating to conflict of interest and integrity.He said he is confident that with all these proposed initiatives, there will be a strong market reflecting a strong economy which the government has pledged to create

Mr. Wickremesinghe added that Ricardo Hausmann, the current Director of the Center for International Development and a Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University along with famous capital market investor George Soros will be in Sri Lanka in January to attend the Euromoney Sri Lanka Global Investment Forum sponsored by business and finance magazine Euromoney. The CSE also adopted the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) which was developed by MSCI and Standard and Poor’s with a view to standardizing capital market activities on the sidelines of their 3-decade celebrations.