Capital market to contribute US $ 50 bn to GDP by 2016
H.D.H Senewiratne
The capital market is expected to contribute US $ 50 billion for the
country’s GDP by year 2016, therefore the Stock Brokers should be geared
to handle the highest number of deposits in the future, Director General
Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Dr Nalaka Godahewa said.
“Sri Lanka’s GDP would be US $ 100 billion by 2016, out of which 50
percent should contribute from the capital market. Therefore, each stock
broker should be geared to manage many retail accounts, “Dr Godahewa
said at the launch of the Colombo Stock Brokers Association website and
also introduced code of principles of best practices at the event.
He said that right now the country’s total GDP was US $ 60 billion
and the capital market’s contribution to the GDP was only 30 percent.
There are more than 220,000, accounts in the Capital Depository
System, he said.
“At present the country has 29 stock brokering companies, each
company should be geared to manage at least 20,000 retail deposits.
Therefore all stakeholders should work together to make a vibrant stock
market to achieve that target.
To popularize the capital market education aspect plays a pivotal
role because our present market is a speculative market than the
research base market,” he said.
” When the foreign investors are investing in Sri Lanka they have
little knowledge on few companies.
Therefore, research on companies would help to create a vibrant and
strong market in the country.
“With the stability in the market, the debt market has performed
well, better than we expected. Therefore, we have to find ways and means
to face future challenges to make a vibrant market,” he said
The President of the Colombo Stock Brokers Association (CSBA) Dimuthu
Abeysekera said that in developing a vibrant equity market, the role of
stockbrokers is crucial and into this equation comes the tenets of
transparency and enhancing effectiveness across the market.
He said that facilitating a customer centric solution in securities
trading in Sri Lanka would be a primary objective for the stock broking
community, while maximizing financial returns for the broader investor
community by proving prudent timely information,” he said.
“Colombo Stock Exchange is showing stability at present and the
development of the overall capital market by introducing Principles of
Best Practice that would help to promote the professionalism to the
market,” he said.
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