More women needed for capital market- DG/SEC

Anjana Samarasinghe

Women’ participation in the local capital market should increase up to 25 per cent said Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Channa De Silva.

He was speaking at the press conference which was held last week to celebrate the 21st anniversary of SEC. At the moment women’s participation in the local capital market activities is 3 per cent and in developed countries it is at 40 per cent de Silva said.

In Sri Lanka awareness on capital market among housewives is still at a low level. In countries like Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan housewives play a big role. It is vital to have women participation for the development of the capital market.

SEC is expecting to adopt long and mid term strategies to educate female investors on the local market and increase the women’s participation in the market.

“We will be targeting women entrepreneurs and expect to attract women in the grass root level for the capital market,” he said.

“SEC is planning to attract more investors from rural areas to derive the benefits of the capital market for the rural communities. Sri Lanka is one of the best nations for saving money.

However, domestic savings still remain at homes in rural areas. We need to convert these funds into investments in the capital market,” he said. Since last seven to eight years the stock market delivered over 25 per cent of returns and this is a very satisfactory level. SEC is conducting regular sessions for educating investors in outstations. SEC is planning to have awareness programmes on capital market covering all parts of the island.

“Due to the global economic crisis global stock has come down and four to five stock markets were closed down during past few days. Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) suffered only 15 percent loss due to the impact of the crisis.

Investors are optimistic and we expect that market to bounce back. There are lots of opportunities for foreign investors in the CSE. We expect that blocked funds in the Middle East will flow to CSE,” he said.

Meanwhile SEC entered into MoUs with all 13 universities in the country to reward undergraduates who performed well in the subjects related to the capital market.

SEC also expects to establish capital market information centres in these universities. Under this project SEC has already established information centres in Rajarata University and Sabaragamuwa University. SEC also conducts quiz competitions for school children for increasing awareness on capital market among school children.

Sri Lankan Capital market written by Y.W. Gunawardena also launched at the press conference.