BICM: Building a knowledge centre

All over the world the capital market is a risky venture. Ups and downs are very common here. This type of price fluctuation leaves little impact on the market. But when the market crashes, it happens like a big bang.
Avoiding any market crash depends on how the stock market structure is built. It also depends on the risk management tools alongside stakeholders' education level.
The USA is a developed country but they faced the Great Depression in 1930 following the world's biggest stock market crash in 1929 there. They recovered from the shock, because they had better risk management tools and a good knowledge level of investors.
Bangladesh needs to focus on the capital market and also make sure that the risk management tools are used properly. A capacity development management centre should also be there so that stakeholders can learn "how to beat the market".
The Bangladesh Institute of Capital Market (BICM) is a centre providing that scope of learning the nitty-gritty of the capital market.
The BICM is the first ever academic institution helping investors learn about the capital market and enhance their knowledge level. The government's main objective of setting up the BICM is to produce skilled stock market professionals and equip the potential human resources with proper knowledge about the market.
The BICM is a centre of excellence for promoting admirable market professionals who will highly be interested in developing career in the stock market alongside devising practical capital market education and training programmes for investors. It was established in 2008.
Moreover, the BICM is a   national institute established as a not-for-profit organisation registered with the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.  
In addition, it is a world class and well-equipped structure having the capacity to train 250 people at a time. This institution also has a digital library coupled with extensive research activities.
This is the country's first ever educational institution set up with IT facilities including audio and video conference, high-speed fibre optic Internet connections and more than 10,000 books including E-book facilities in its unique digital library.
To focus on Vision 2021 the BICM has been established as a stronger and multidisciplinary capital market education institution in the 21st century's South Asia.
BICM executive president Mohammad Abdul Hannan Zoarder along with other highly professional and renowned senior people is carrying out BICM activities to create skilled human resources for the capital market.
The prime focus of the BICM is on bridging the gap between the current level of knowledge, skills and competence of Bangladesh capital market participants and the level required for participants in the world perspective. For attaining this objective the BICM has already taken some initiatives. It holds 20 certificate courses and investor education programmes twice a month. The significant courses of them are:
1 Investors' Education Programme
2 Certificate in Securities Laws in Bangladesh
3 Certificate in Financial Statement Analysis
4 Certificate in International Financial Reporting Standards
5 Enterprise Network Solution for Stock Exchange Members
6 Certificate Programmes of different durations on Securities laws, Corporate governance, Financial statement analysis, Legal drafting, International financial reporting standard, Investment in capital market, Investment analysis and securities valuation, Trading software etc.
7 Certificate in Investment Analysis and Securities Valuation
 8 Certificate in Financial Journalism
9 Future activities like Postgraduate Diploma Course, Training on new products of capital market, and Master's Degree in Capital Market etc
In 2015 the BICM introduced the first ever post-graduate diploma on the capital market. Those who are highly passionate and interested to start career in the capital market will find this degree useful and it will add value to the candidate's career path.
Our incumbent Finance Minister emphasised that it was the right time to develop a strong educational institution like the BICM which will not only raise investors' awareness but also provide strategic support to our capital market through grooming skilled professionals.
Now there is a change in the attitude of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), previously known as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Definitely the BSEC is now more active than the previous SEC.
The capital market is gradually moving on. The market is already demutualised, new products like financial derivatives, commodity exchange, ETF Exchange are knocking at the door. It is the right time for the BICM to act more vigorously.
In future the BICM should focus more on their human resources as well as in-house infrastructure development. They should increase their faculties and trainers should focus on their own publications and research. They should not be limited to the post-graduate diploma.
They also should go forward to introduce and offer next generation degrees like mentoring for chartered financial courses, financial risk management courses, master's degree in finance and economics, financial modeling, and Phd programme.
Only then the BICM will emerge as one of the country's leading centres of excellence in the arena of education.
The writer is a stock market analyst now serving at BRAC. He authored "Bangladesh Share Market: Looking ahead after two big crashes".
 toufique2010@gmail.com