The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) will host the Executive Committee Board Meeting for the current term of the South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) on the 27th of February 2017. Chief Executives of Stock Exchanges in South Asia will attend the Meeting and Workshop on the theme, “Way forward for Exchanges in South Asia”. CSE Chairman Mr. Vajira Kulatilaka is presently the Chairman of SAFE.

The CEOs of the Bombay Stock exchange (BSE), Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), Chittagong Stock Exchange, Maldives Stock Exchange, Royal Securities Exchange of Bhutan, Central Depository Bangladesh, Mercantile Exchange Nepal and the CSE will meet to review its activities and plan out the next term of office. The participants will also finalize the next chairmanship of SAFE and the host country in which the AGM will be held later this year.

The post-lunch session will feature a segment where the two CEOs of BSE and PSX will share their experiences and transformational strategies of their exchanges with SAFE Member exchange representatives and CEOs of Member Firms of the CSE. This will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the CEOs of SAFE Member Exchanges.

The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka Mr. Thilak Karunaratne will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest while Mr. Vajira Kulatilaka will be the guest of Honour in his capacity as the Chairman of SAFE.

Commenting on the initiative, SAFE and CSE Chairman Mr. Vajira Kulatilaka stated “The Executive Committee Board Meeting is a key event in the South Asian capital market’s calendar and we are pleased to host the event in Colombo this year. The event will strengthen cooperation among our exchanges and create opportunity for cross-border investment linkages. Collaboration of our fellow exchanges will play a vital role in accelerating economic integration in South Asia going forward.”

SAFE aims to foster collaboration and co-operation among its members in order to develop their respective capital markets. Presently SAFE has members comprising of stock and commodity exchanges across South Asia and several depositories and clearing houses in the region as associate members. Sri Lanka has held the Chairmanship of the SAFE Secretariat since 2015. A key initiative during the period has been the introduction of the “SAFE Vision 2025”, which hopes to encompass the future direction of SAFE. The vision deals with a number of areas that are vital to the development of the capital markets in the region, including improving financial literacy, co-operation among member exchanges and cross border financial trade.