6 Bangladeshi firms win at SAFA Best Published Annual Reports Award

Among the countries in South Asia, Bangladeshi entities scored top in eight categories of SAFA Best Published Annual Reports Award competition 2019.

The entities are Bank Asia limited, Reliance Insurance limited, IDLC Finance limited, Orion Pharma limited, Grameenphone Limited and Golden Harvest Agro Industries Limited.

Reliance Insurance Ltd of Bangladesh was awarded as the “overall winner,” according to a press release.

Nineteen Bangladeshi companies — both listed and non-listed — were nominated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) in the 11 sectors out of 13 categories.

A total of 101 companies from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka took part in this competition this year.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) organised the virtual SAFA Best Presented Annual Reports Award, Integrated Reporting Award and SAARC Anniversary Award for Corporate Governance Disclosures 2019 ceremony on Wednesday, in which Bangladeshi entities were connected through Zoom from the ICAB Auditorium in Dhaka.

They received the awards from ICAB President Muhammad Farooq, SAFA Vice President AKM Delwer Hussain, and Mohammed Humayun Kabir, member council and past president of ICAB.

In the private sector banks category, Bank Asia became the winner, Shahjalal Islami Bank became joint first runner-up and BRAC bank limited the joint second runner-up.

Reliance Insurance was the winner in insurance category, while Green Delta Insurance Company and Prime Insurance Company received certificate of merit.

In financial services sector, IDLC Finance Limited became the winner, and IPDC Finance Limited and LankaBangla Finance Limited became joint second runners-up.

Orion Pharma Limited became the joint winner in the manufacturing category, British American Tobacco Bangladesh became first runner-up and Summit Power Limited got the certificate of merit.

In Communication and Information Technology, Grameenphone Limited was the winner.

Unique Hotel and Resort Limited became the second runner up in the service sector.

Sajida Foundation became the joint first runner-up in the NGO category, Ghashful became the joint second runner-up and CODEC received a certificate of merit.

In agriculture, Golden Harvest Agro Industries Limited became the joint winner.

The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh received a certificate of merit for the public sector category.

In SAARC Anniversary Award for Corporate Governance, IDLC Finance became the winner, LankaBangla Finance became the first runner-up and Bank Asia limited became the joint second runner-up.

In Integrated Reporting, IDLC Finance Limited once again became the winner, LankaBangla Finance became the second runner-up and Bank Asia received certificate of merit.

SAFA is the association of the national Chartered Accountancy and Cost and Management Accountancy Institutions in the SAARC countries.

This is a distinctly glorious annual event of SAFA to promote transparency and accountability through the financial and non-financial disclosures in the published annual reports in SAARC countries.