Islamabad: Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX), Khurram Zafar on Wednesday said that PMEX wants to advance the concept of innovation and market productivity in the commodity market by increasing efficiency in agriculture and metal.
‘We are envisioning future markets under which market regulation will be maintained and competitiveness and productivity in the commodity market will be enhanced, ” Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX), Khurram Zafar told reporter in an exclusive interview.
He said that the exchange registered a trading volume of around Rs 3,800 billion in the current Fiscal Year.
CEO, PMEX said that Commodity futures are derivative contracts in which the purchaser agrees to buy or sell a specific quantity of a physical commodity at a specified price on a particular date in the future.
Derivatives are investments that derive their value from the price of another asset, typically called the underlying asset, he said.
He said that Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX) has a huge role in future market design and market economy on which the future market depends.
Talking to reporter, the CEO, PMEX said that the Market Eco-system and Storage are very important on which Pakistan Mercantile Exchange is working.
He said that there is a need to digitize the commodity market across the country, on which our institution is working on research and analytics.
Zafar said that digitization and automation are very important in the global capital market at this time and ‘we are working on creating the ecosystem of the commodity market and its role is important in the restoration and development of the country’s economy.’
The productivity factor in the Pakistani economy is low and more work needs to be done on it which is being followed by PMEX, he said.
The CEO, PMEX said that storage is very important in the commodity market and our organization is ready to provide facilities to the farmers, which will have a positive impact on our agricultural economy.
He said that currently countries’ economies are dependent on research and data, and the future economy is also dependent on this.
Zafar said that the government needs to collaborate with PMEX to modernize the market economy in Pakistan so that the country’s economy can move forward.
He said that the role of stakeholders is very important to bring competitiveness in the economy and to bring it into harmony with the global market.
Zafar said that PMEX is providing a good platform to integrate stakeholders in the agricultural economy.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX) is the country’s first and only demutualized commodity futures exchange, licensed and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), he said.
CEO PMEX said that based on sophisticated multi-dimensional infrastructure and state-of-the-art technology, PMEX offers a complete suite of services i.e. trading, clearing and settlement, custody as well as back office, all under one roof.
He said that PMEX, formerly National Commodity Exchange, initially started trading in Gold only and this listing was followed by the first gold physical delivery in later years.
PMEX’s international affiliations include memberships of Association of Futures Markets (AFM), Futures Industry Association (FIA), and Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with different Commodity Exchanges of the world, he said.
Additional Products were subsequently launched – IRRI -6 rice in March 2008 Palm Olien futures in June 2008 and KIBOR and Crude Oil and Silver contracts were listed in 2009.
He said the Sugar contract was in 2011.
Finally, he said that the commodity market has its due potential to play an significant role in sustainable economic development of the country, for which coordination and integration of the local market is pivotal and PMEX is paying full attention in this regards
