Pakistan soon to become source of economic prosperity: Mamnoon (The Nation,
Nov.01,2015)
Rawalpindi - President Mamnoon Hussain yesterday inaugurated the 13th Management
Accountants International Conference (MAIC) hosted by the Institute of Cost and Management
Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan) in Bhurban, Murree.
The conference is organised after every three years since 1966. The conference gathered
professionals from Pakistan, USA, UK, Australia, and South Asian countries to deliberate on the
theme of “Responsible Leadership for sustainable Economy”.
Kashif Mateen Ansari, President ICMA Pakistan welcomed the chief guest and highlighted the
role of institute towards country’s economic development. He stated that institute was actively
involved in providing a platform to the intellectuals and industry’s representatives to generate
pragmatic ideas that could serve as base for the government and regulatory authorities to set
direction and devise policies for economic growth and development.
At the inaugural session, Mohammed Hanif Ajari, a senior fellow member and former Vice
President ICMA Pakistan shared his views on the theme of the conference.
Speaking on the occasion, President Mamnoon Hussian lauded the role of ICMA Pakistan in
providing excellent education in the discipline of management accountancy and in meeting the
professional competence in a competitive environment. He said that Pakistan would soon
become a source of economic prosperity and stability in the region and the professionals like
management accountants should contribute their due share in this development process. He also
emphasised on the initiatives taken by the government for promotion of education and youth
development.
The inaugural session was followed by Technical Session on the theme of “Integrated
Reporting” which was chaired by Kashif Mateen Ansari, President ICMA Pakistan. The session
commenced with the welcome note Waqar Ali Khan, member National Council, ICMA Pakistan
which was followed by presentation of Mohammad Iqbal Ghori, Vice President, ICMA Pakistan
on the topic of “Role of Management Accounting for responsible leadership in the Society”.
In his presentation, he outlined the major outcomes of a research survey conducted recently by
the Research Wing of the Institute to examine the applicability of management accounting
practices and techniques in different industries at decision makers’ level. The research revealed
the emerging role of management accountants in business and industry of Pakistan as they were
now being actively involved in operational and strategic decision making process of companies’
Boards in view of their technical and professional skills in cost efficiency and management.
The second presentation in the technical session was made by Mohammad Hanif Ajari, former
Vice President ICMA Pakistan and Director Global Supply Chain, Information Management and
Corporate Compliance, Getz Pharma on the subject of “Corporate Sustainability for Value
Creation” in which he highlighted the specified qualities found in a successful sustainable
business enterprise. He stated that sustainability has the potential to affect all aspects of a
company’s operations from development, manufacturing and distribution to sales and support
functions.
The next presentation was delivered by Vincent Tophoff, Senior Technical Manager,
International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) on the topic of Improving Business Reporting
Processes and Integrating Risk Management. In his presentation, he shared the international
benchmarks of business reporting and the role of IFAC in the capacity building of its member
bodies.
This was followed by joint presentation of Dr WG S Kelum and Dr Roshan Ajward representing
the Department of Accounting in University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. The joint
presentation made by them assessed the effect of demographic factors on earnings management.
The next speaker in the session was Arif Masud Mirza, Regional Director of Policy, ACCA –
MENASA who shared his views on the theme of technical session.
This was followed by presentation on Human Capital Resource for Inspiration by Charanjot
Singh Nanda from Institute of Chartered Accountants, India and Muhammad Junaid Shekha,
CEO, IT Minds Limited (a subsidiary of Central Depositary Company Limited).
The last presentation in the conference was made by Mohammad Ashraf Bawany, former
President, ICMA Pakistan and Chief Executive & Managing Director of Linde Pakistan Ltd. who
spoke on the topic of “Emerging Opportunities for Pakistan – Need for Responsible Leadership”.
He highlighted that with the increasing business opportunities in Pakistan, there is a strong need
for corporate leaders to act responsibly in optimising emerging opportunities.
‘Mobilink set to bring about digital revolution in Pakistan’ (Pakistan Today, Nov.01,2015)
After being in the conventional telecom business for over 20 years in the country, Mobilink is
now all geared up to reshape the digital revolution in Pakistan by capitalizing its market position
through innovative new solutions which it plans to introduce in the next five years, revealed
Aamir Ibrahim, Deputy CEO of Mobilink in an interview with a local technology blog.
Considering the prevailing trends, Pakistan is expected to have over 40 million smartphone users
by 2018, who on-average will spend around 2.5 hours per day on mobile devices, creating a
definitive demand for mobile-first solutions and that is exactly the area that Mobilink is hoping
to tap.
Watching HD movies online, paying your cafeteria bills through mobile account by simply
tapping the phone, paying tolls through an app configured to deduct money from your bank
account on pay-as-you-go basis, registering a complaint with your power company, getting to
know about your kids’s class schedule and the syllabus details, checking out the closest gym in
the vicinity and getting registered there by paying via credit card, browsing malls online and then
making purchases for things ranging from apparels to groceries, staying in touch with your FnF
through Skype conference calls, collaborating with your colleagues through your company’s inhouse collaboration app and much much more; all is going to be possible soon and that too with
few clicks only through a device that you carry all the time, i.e. smartphone.
Aamir Ibrahim is ambitiously working on bringing all these digital and mobile first solutions to
Mobilink customers with-in next few years.
Aamir believes that world of digital technology will take us closer to achieving real life progress
and this is the only way forward for a developing country like Pakistan to make a mark at a
global scale.
He candidly admitted that he will have to start the digitalization of his organization internally
prior to anything else, such as making Mobilink a paper-less organization and whole bunch of
other things to become a true digital organization or an m-company.
When asked if such digitalization or transformation is going to impact certain policies of
company, such as hiring process or how Mobilink deals with its employees, Aamir said that
technology helps in bettering the processes and this change will naturally impact our lives
internally in a positive way at several levels.
Along side internal work-style shift, Mobilink is working on digitalization of products and
services in parallel. For example they are working on e-care solutions to ultimately allow
customers to subscribe or unsubscribe to services and products through a single click, or to pay
their bills via Mobicash initially and then down the line via credit cards in real time all through a
simple mobile app.
Aamir said that these are some modest steps they are taking in order to realize the true dreams of
a digital revolution. He aims for Mobilink to become a solution provider, instead of just an
infrastructure company, where it will have in-house solutions for all sorts of digital needs.
He revealed that Mobilink is currently working on store-front applications right now, payment
gateway and other similar services that are going to be in-house. Additionally, Mobilink is also
working on various partnerships to produce products and solutions for end-users ranging from
content development to daily life utilities.
Without sharing much details, Aamir informed that there are a lot of interesting things happening
at the group level and with-in Pakistan to create a reason for users to be on internet. “We will
have to ultimately create internet properties that will solve real-life problems”, said Aamir.
Despite acknowledging the challenges that Mobilink may face during the ride, Aamir was
optimistic that other stakeholders, such as government, will get convinced about the potential
that technology has to transform the lives to help each and every individual of our society.