KARACHI, March 12: The annual CFO Conference was held on Tuesday by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP), at which former president of ICAP Syed Masoud Ali Naqvi spoke on the “Critical analysis on economy and how it affects the performance of business.”

He highlighted the resilience of the country's economy, saying that it was facing multiple challenges with the total debt at 68 per cent of GDP, investment 11 per cent of GDP, taxes 9 per cent of GDP and consumption growth at 20 per cent. “To steer the country out of the crisis a robust political will and commitment is needed,” Naqvi said, adding that politicians supported by expert groups would counter the crisis.

The conference themed ‘CFO-Meeting Future Challenges’ was attended by large number of professionals from finance and business.

President ICAP Ahmad Saeed stated that the CFO Conference over the years had emerged as a strong platform where professionals in business and industry meet to explore, confront and thrash out solutions to meet the challenges and issues. He further spoke of the multifaceted dimensions of the emerging CFO and its four faces’- steward, operator, strategist and catalyst, citing the challenge to balance and achieve excellence in all the roles.

Mian Usman A. Ghani, Professor of Strategy at University of Texas, USA and Senior Vice President, Harvard Business School Club spoke on ‘Financial Leaders – Meeting Future Challenges’. He emphasized on building of an emergent world, moving from spreadsheets to simulations as to create memories of the future. In today’s organizational challenges CFO’s role was transformational- leadership of change that created synergy and building teams. "The need is to move from the myopic view as the health of society is more important than the wealth creation of a nation", he said.

The ICAP announced winners of third Professionals Excellence awards, declaring AKD Securities Limited as the 1st award winner for the “Issuance of Participation Term Certificate”. PSO was declared as the 2nd award inner on “Partial Settlement of Circular Debt.”

The judges were Zafar Iqbal Sobani, Feroze J Cawasji and Ruhail Muhammed.

IFAC Senior Technical Manager Vincent Top Hoff spoke on ‘Strategic Risk Management in the face of Uncertainty and Unexpected Risks’. Dr Sunil Gupta, Lifetime Master Trainer, deBono Thinking Systems spoke on “Unleashing Creativity to Deliver Strategic Excellence”.

Managing Director Lahore Stock Exchange Aftab Ahmad Chaudhry apprised the participants on ‘How Public Private Partnerships was faring in Today’s Tough Environment’. Kimihide Ando, MD, Mitsubishi Pakistan & President, OICCI highlighted the subject ‘Pakistan as a Land of Opportunity – Role of CFO in Bringing Investments’

Nauman Asif Mian CFO, Bayt.com in his session ‘Regional Challenges & Opportunities for Finance Professionals in the Middle East’ outlined the picture of the region.