Pakistan's banking sector moving towards bright future.

Byline: Khalil Ahmed

Interview with Mr. Barkatullah Lone - Chairman, GB International Economic Forum

Profile:

Mr. Barkatullah Lone is Chairman of GB International Economic Forum and a renowned young Economist of Pakistan. He was ranked in the top ten Economists of Pakistan in the year 2017. He is a Chartered Accountant from England and Wales, Chartered Management Accountant from UK, Chartered Certified Accountant from UK, Chartered Global Management Accountant from the USA, Gold Medalist Management Accountant, Public Finance Accountant from Pakistan plus he holds master's degree in Economics and Law from Karachi University. He has been associated with the corporate sector in Finance and Audit profession at various positions (CFO/GM Finance/Chief Internal Auditor) for the last many years. He has rendered his professional Finance/Audit/Accounting services in Pakistan as well as abroad. Simultaneous with his job career, he has been appearing at various Local and International TV channels as Economic and Financial Analyst for the last Eight years.

Association with Organization:

Presently, Barkatullah Lone is associated with a reputed Saudi Conglomerate Group (Arfad Group) in the Eastern Province of KSA as Group Chief Financial Officer. He has joined this company with a vision to professionalize the business functions and to streamline the Processes by embedding the business activities into integrated Information Systems. He has ample experience of converting the traditional owner-based culture into a corporate culture in his ex-companies which he is envisioning to inculcate a corporate culture in the existing company as well. Arfad Group has been one of the best Corporate Groups of Saudi in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility.

PAKISTAN and GULF ECONOMIST had an exclusive conversation with Mr. Barkatullah Lone about banking sector. The excerpts are as follows:

Roshan Digital Account enables overseas Pakistanis to open an account digitally, i.e., online from anywhere in the world without visiting the bank branch. Account can be opened in PKR or foreign currencies such as US dollar, euro or GBP. This account is used only for sending the foreign remittances. The key benefit of Digital Account is that the expatriate Pakistani can send the remittances to this account without getting approval of the bank or state bank. Majority of overseas Pakistanis have appreciated this initiative of state bank and with the passage of time, many overseas...