The initiatives of the financial services industry of South Asia for a meaningful achievement of the financial integration objectives in the region have been praised.

President of Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) and Vice Chairman of South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) Al Maruf Khan conveyed the appreciation saying that the promotion of the cross border investments would bring wide range economic growth in the region besides bringing the South Asian economies together.

Mr Khan made the remarks while consultants of "Regional Financial Integration - Developing a Harmonised Regulatory Framework for the South Asian Capital Markets" project visited CSE in Chittagong Monday, said a press release.

The project has been developed under the specific needs identified by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Secretariat of facilitating regional financial integration.

The regional integration project is being carried out by SAFE under the grant provided by USAID.

The objectives of the project are to develop harmonised market regulations for the capital markets; to standardise self regulatory framework for the management and the operations of the markets in the region; to enhance market integrity and investor confidence; to introduce consistent and common reporting standards; to improve the governance and transparency norms for the listed sector; to facilitate easy capital raising on regional basis and the promotion of cross border listings; to deepen and broaden the region's securities markets; to assist in, relatively, free movement of capital and portfolio investments; and to promote the greater integration of the South Asian capital and financial markets.