Bangladeshi entities win 21 SAFA awards for best published annual reports

Bangladeshi companies and different entities win 21 awards in the SAFA Best Published Annual Reports Award Competition 2020.

The annual reports presented by Bangladeshi firms topped the list in 12 out of 16 categories for the SAARC countries, among which some 58 awards were distributed.

The awards given by the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) are considered the most prestigious accolade for financial reporting in the countries of the South Asian region.

The SAFA represents over 3,75,000 accountants having membership of the national chartered accountancy and cost and management accountancy institutions in the South Asian countries namely Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan.

In the overall category, Bangladesh's Bank Asia became the winner. Here, Rupali Bank of Bangladesh and Pakistan's Fauji Fertiliser Company became joint first runners up. There was a second runner also and it was Bangladesh's Shahjalal Islami Bank.

In the private sector banking institutions category, including co-operative banks, Bank Asia became the winner and Shahjalal Islami Bank first runner up.

In the public sector banking institutions category, Rupali Bank became the winner while Prime Insurance Co Ltd was the winner in the insurance sector.

IDLC Finance Ltd and Bangladesh Finance Ltd became the winner and first runner up respectively in the financial services sector.

RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Ltd became the joint first runner up in the manufacturing sector while Grameenphone Ltd (Bangladesh) became the first runner up in the communication and information technology sector.

Unique Hotels and Resorts Limited (Bangladesh) wins first runner-up award in the services sector (excluding financial services, communication and IT sector).

Ghashful (Bangladesh) became the winner in the category of non-government organisations (including NPOs) while Sajida Foundation (Bangladesh) becomes the first runner-up.

In the category of SAARC anniversary award for corporate governance, Bank Asia becomes the winner while Shahjalal Islami Bank and Lankabangla Finance jointly become the first runners up.

In the integrated reporting category, IDLC Finance Ltd became joint winners with Sri Lanka's National Development Bank PLC.

Besides, a total of 43 certificates of merit awards were also distributed among the companies.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka hosted this year's regional awards virtually conferred by the SAFA.

Md Shahadat Hossain, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, handed over the prizes among the Bangladeshi winning entities at a ceremony held virtually today, according to a press release of the ICAB.

In addition, SAFA has also initiated SAARC anniversary awards for corporate governance disclosures since 2006 and Integrated Reporting Awards since 2015.

ICAB Vice Presidents NKA Mobin and Fouzia Haque and CEO Shubhashish Bose were also present at the award distribution ceremony.