Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Kabir Ahmed Sidhu said Pakistan has resolved long-standing issues faced by Chinese stock market investors, a move expected to strengthen mutual trust and enhance investment cooperation between the capital markets of the two countries.
The development is likely to support the cross-border listing of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on the stock exchanges of both nations.
Speaking during his first visit to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, Sidhu said the SECP recently held discussions with You Hang, a non-executive director on the PSX board and nominee of the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX).
“We resolved the problem faced with for a very long period of time and hope to go some ways to develop mutual trust and we can develop on it further with the task force that we set up,” Sidhu said.
“I hope we are able to achieve this target, target of trust lifting, the ETFs we talked about and other things we talked about [in the meeting],” he said, adding that progress on the initiative would be reviewed on a weekly and monthly basis.
Sidhu also highlighted the government’s efforts to reform and expand Pakistan’s insurance sector, noting that parliament has nearly completed amendments to the relevant laws.
According to the SECP chief, the reforms aim to attract more insurance and reinsurance companies, including foreign firms, encourage competition, and introduce a wider range of products for consumers and businesses.
“They [the parliament] are only a short while away then it is going to be enacted as a law,” Sidhu said, adding “The outside companies are able to come in, reinsurance companies are able to come in, create more competition in the market and [introduce] diversified products.”
He observed that competition in Pakistan’s insurance industry has remained limited despite the sector’s significant role in the economy.
Sidhu further said the SECP aims to increase the number of capital market investors to 2.5 million from around 600,000 currently.
To support this objective, the regulator has launched the Capital Market Development Fund (CMDF) in partnership with major market institutions. The initiative is designed to broaden investor participation, improve financial literacy, and strengthen Pakistan’s capital markets.
