LALITPUR: Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat has underscored the need for making the capital market healthier and more competitive.
Inaugurating the World Investor Week here today, he emphasized enhancing the capital market-related education of investors and intensifying the regulatory role of Nepal Rastra Bank and Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON).
Stating that talks of 'insider trading' are also heard from time to time, Minister Mahat urged SEBON to bring this under the purview of regulation in a decisive manner.
Finance Minister Mahat directed SEBON and the Nepal Stock Exchange to fulfil their regulatory role in the interest of the general investors and also to expand information and literacy on the capital market.
The capital market is becoming competitive and the situation of monopoly has ended after the new stock broker licenses were issued, the finance minister claimed and stressed the need to make the capital market more competitive.
Finance Minister Mahat stressed the need to increase financial and capital market literacy citing that only a few people are knowledgeable about the share market while many others do not have information on how to make a profit by investing in this sector. More information should be provided to the general public about the share market, he opined.
SEBON Chairman Ramesh Kumar Hamal said financial literacy is very low in Nepal. "Financial literacy is less than 20% in Nepal and this is low at the regional level itself. All bodies and sides should fulfil their respective role to increase fiscal literacy," he suggested, adding that new investment tools have been developed and the revolution in the information technology sector has brought new opportunities as well as challenges, and we should be prepared for this as well.
SEBON today brought into operation a chatbot based on artificial intelligence (AI) for investor education and hearing of grievances. Various programmes will be organised for a week to mark World Investor Week, it is said.
