Migrant workers should be encouraged to invest in CSE

By Surekha GALAGODA

The small investors have to be protected. Therefore give them the proper advice and guidance, said Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa addressing the Investment Day 2011 opening organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka(SEC) to celebrate its silver jubilee in Colombo yesterday. “In the event the small investors doesn’t get the proper guidance and advice on investing in the share market our country will also have to suffer the problems encountered by other countries,” the minister said.

Minister Rajapaksa said that though people working the Middle East send the remittances here the money is used for consumption. Therefore he requested the officials to educate the people on the value of investing and to attract them to the stock market.Tracing the history of the capital market the minister said that during the time of the British, after the coffee plantations were destroyed they found the funds to start tea plantations through the capital market. After President Mahinda Rajapaksa won the elections in 2005 he had to face many challenges which included defeating the LTTE, ensuring food security and development of infrastructure among others.

The President together with the government faced all these challenges and today the country is enjoying peace while North and the East are also making a positive contribution to the development of the country. Minister Rajapaksa said that though some parts of the country were flooded in January destroying the paddy crops the country has sufficient paddy and to-date we have not imported any rice. President Mahinda Rajapaksa even donated 250 metric tons of rice to Somalia. To ensure that every citizen has food, the government launched the Divi Neguma program to establish one million home economic units to ensure food securitySEC Chairperson Indrani Sugathadasa said that the capital market in any country plays a vital role and that is the reason that economists define it as a development indicator.

The capital market is a source of attracting investment and today there are 268 listed companies out of which 28 were listed this year.

The Colombo Stock Exchange(CSE) should not be limited to the elite but should be expanded to the regions to attract more investors. She said that the issuer base has expanded but the investor base too should increase. At present there are 500,000 CDS accounts while only 200,000 are active. She said that to attract more investors to the market, confidence should be built by ensuring that all investors get an equal share while the activities of the CSE should be transparent. The SEC is the regulator of the CSE and as in any market the share prices were increasing and decreasing and in some instances the increase was around 300 percent. The small investors too should be vigilant and knowledgeable about this scenario.

The board members of SEC meet twice a month and study all aspects of the stock market. She said that a regulator’s job is thankless and we are confident that our actions will improve the confidence of the investors. Director General SEC Malik Cader said that they are planning to have investor days in Jaffna, Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the near future.

He said that to double the per capita income and the gross domestic production by 2016 developing the capital market and the bond market is a ‘must’.