LAHORE: (Thursday, December 12, 2019): Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad has said that quality in services and manufacturing sector could play very important role in boosting country’s economy and efforts must be made to facilitate business community and provide them with resources. He was addressing an international conference on 4th International Conference on ‘Banking, Insurance and Business Management’ (CBIBM 2019) under the title of "Redefining Business Practices in Uncertainties" organized by Hailey College of Banking and Finance here on Thursday. State Bank of Pakistan’s Executive Director Dr Shaukat Zaman, HCBF Principal Prof Dr Mubbsher Munawar Khan, Lahore School of Economics’ Professor Dr Rashid Amjad, Research Centre of Business Strategies Tohoku University Japan Director Dr Shahzada Nayer, Fida Hussain Bukhari, researchers from various universities, faculty members and a large number of students participated in the event. Addressing the inaugural session, Prof Niaz Ahmad said that Pakistan was struggling to improve its economy and it was universities’ responsibility to help the government. He said that our manufacturing side was improving and new opportunities were being created for young people. He said that our human resource was our biggest asset. He said that institutions must take care of the needs of their consumers and provide them maximum facilities as it was the age of competition. He advised the students to become a responsible and law-abiding citizen. Mr Shaukat Zaman said that State Bank had introduced policies to encourage banking sector and protecting the interest of consumers. He said that banking industry was being transformed with the help of technology. However, he said, there was need to ensure specialized security infrastructure to avoid banking fraud, hacking and theft incidents. He suggested that we needed to re-invent our business models. Dr Rashid Amjad called upon the need for provision of conducive business environment. He said that there should be balance between the volume of our import and export. He said that efforts should be made to stabilize macroeconomic sector. He urged the youth and women in particular to come forward and contribute to the development of economy of the country. Prof Dr Mubbsher Munawar Khan said that geo-political situation was changing and new economic blocks were emerging. He said that CPEC was bringing a lot of opportunities as well as challenges and the nature of competition was changing. He said that social media had introduced new horizons in business sector. He said that social media was replacing mainstream media for advertising and sale of products. He said that Islamic banking was rapidly flourishing in the world. He said that HCBF was making academic contributions for resolving the challenges being faced by banking, finance, insurance and business sectors in Pakistan and our graduates were highly demanded by the industry.