is published by SYED HUSSAIN PUBLICATIONS SDN BHD (25343-K) of Redberry City, Lot 2A, Jln 13/2, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03-7495 3000 Fax: 03-7495 3200 and Printed by KHL PrINTINg CO SDN BHD (235060-A) Lot 10&12, Jalan Modal 23/2, Seksyen 23 Kawasan Miel Phase 8, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: 03-5541 3695 Fax: 03-5541 3712

More funding, incentives for marketing efforts will spur animation industryCONTINUOUS funding and incentives to encourage more idea development, production and marketing efforts for the creative industry, especially animation, will further provide a sustainable growth for the market players. Animonsta Studios Sdn Bhd founder Nizam Razak said the government has supported local companies in those areas but there is more that can be done to improve in areas like licensing, merchandising, franchising and retail areas. At the moment, these areas could contribute around 7% of the revenue for an animation company, he told Bernama via email. “We believe with more grants, it can help the local companies to expand their business from animation to merchandising and franchising. The animation industry is not sustainable if the cycle stops at broadcasting and marketing. “Grants and programmes for product prototypes, manufacturing merchandises, franchising and retails set-up should be considered by the government,” he said on budget wishlist for the Budget 2014 to be tabled in Parliament today. Nizam said it is very crucial for the animation industry to get the support from local licensees, retailers and big corporations to ensure further growth in the industry. “The current ecosystem is not fully complete; the animation companies are usually stuck halfway at broadcasting and have to face with a lot of challenges to enter licensing and merchandising businesses. By having incentives, the licensees, retailers and big corporation would be more supportive and receptive towards local animation brands,” he added. — Bernama

AAWDC now has a specific facilityANNe Arundel Workforce Development Corp (AAWDC) now has a facility geared specifically toward getting young people jobs. On Monday, the agency opened its new Youth Employment Services Centre in Glen Burnie, Maryland. From there, they will provide a series of services geared toward helping young people between the ages of 14 and 21 find jobs. The facility’s services will include the Step Up to Success Programme, which provides young Anne Arundel County residents with General Education Degree tutoring and job placement assistance. Last summer, AAWDC programmes were able to link 91 county students in seasonal employment. As a result, eight of the students were able to get year-round jobs, AAWDC CEO Kirkland Murray said.

Workplace flexibity still a top priorityWAShINgTON • MOST of us have long known that life-work balance issues are a priority for today’s workers, especially the Millennials. However, recently, Harris Interactive conducted a study for Mom Corps that confirmed the continuing importance of flexibility. Mom Corps (www.momcorps.com) is a job board and career development site. Their findings offer insights and trended data, reinforcing the significance of workplace flexibility as a strategy that benefits both employees and their organiations. Nearly three-quarters of working adults polled (73%) agreed that flexibility is one of the most important factors they consider when looking for a new job or deciding what company to work for. This score represents a more than a 10 percentage point increase from 2012 (61%). Many employers already understand the value of helping their workers balance life and work. More than two thirds (68%) of working adults agree that their company would be willing to accommodate them if they requested a flexible work schedule, due to reasons like family care, personal work preferences, health issues, etc. — Bloomberg

Power grab gone wrong doomed Goldman’s EvansWAShINgTON • If you ask me, the announced year-end retirement of J Michael Evans, the 56-year-old vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, sends the not-so-subtle message to the firm’s rank and file that in GoldmanWorld, raw power grabs are frowned upon, regardless of the extreme level of talent possessed by the person doing the grabbing. Evans, you may recall, was a co-chairman of the high-profile internal “business standards committee” established in 2010 after the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate’s Permanent Committee on Investigations called into public question whether the firm was adhering to the first rule in its playbook: Clients always come first. In its letter announcing Evans’ retirement, the bank acknowledged the role Evans played on the committee: “Over the last three years, as co-chair of the firm’s Business Standards Committee, he helped oversee the most extensive review of the firm’s business standards and practices in its 144-year history. The committee’s work resulted in significant changes in how the firm addresses important issues related to clients, reputational risk and accountability.” — Bloomberg

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SnapNews

by CHArLES FErNANDEZ

The expected capital market growth and increase in market sophistication under the Capi-tal Market Masterplan 2 has given rise to an inevitable need for a sustainable and high quality pool of market inter-mediaries, making talent de-velopment increasingly crucial to support the expansion of the industry.

Taking this cue, the Securi-ties Industry Development Corporation (SIDC) is playing a pivotal role in facilitating the expected growth by building human capital for the capital market through its effective training and development programmes.

SIDC’s Role in the Capital Market IndustryFor the past two decades SIDC has been delivering a huge range of programmes for capi-tal market participants and is a prominent and leading capital market education and training provider in Asean.

“Being mandated to support the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and Bursa Ma-laysia in making the Malaysian capital market a preferred in-vestors’ destination through training and development for the industry is a tough and challenging assignment for SIDC,” said SIDC CEO Azman Hisham Che Doi.

“Therefore, in carrying out our mandate, continuous inno-vation, improvement and per-

severance is required to ensure we develop programmes that are relevant and add value to the target audiences. Inclusive-ness of industry players’ views on training and development is also very important to us in this respect,” Azman Hisham clarified.

Under a structured and pro-gressive framework, SIDC has developed various fit-for-pur-pose initiatives and pro-grammes to nurture human capital for the Malaysian capi-tal market and strengthen its talent pool, from the entry level to the top leadership echelons.

“SIDC’s programmes at every level emphasise the de-velopment of people into skilled and competent profes-sionals, as part of efforts in fos-tering a more vibrant and at-tractive Malaysian capital market for local and foreign investors,” he added.

Developing Industry ProfessionalsAzman Hisham pointed out that those who want to start a career as an intermediary in the capital market will be re-quired to pass the SC Licens-ing Examinations. Since 2007, SIDC has conducted over

1,600 examination sessions for 33,000 fresh and repeating candidates as well as candi-dates sitting multiple papers.

To continuously enhance market intermediaries’ compe-tencies, licensed intermedia-ries are required to undergo the mandatory Continuing Professional Education (CPE) programme, comprising train-ing courses that focus on regu-latory and technical know-ledge, skills and best practices.

On top of that, the Industry Transformation Initiative (ITI) is another major SIDC training programme for intermediaries, covering core skills enhance-ment to move participants to advanced levels of professio-nalism over time.

Talent Pipeline Programmes to Meet Present ChallengesAdditionally, Azman Hisham pointed out that at the entry level, SIDC plays an important role in supporting the widen-ing of the capital market talent pool by conducting graduate development programmes on behalf of the SC to produce quality, work-ready profes-sionals that meet the industry’s talent needs.

To date, SIDC has pro-duced close to 1,200 entry-level professionals for the industry through SC talent pipeline programmes such as the Capital Markets Gradu-ate Training Scheme, Gradu-ate Development Programme and Islamic Capital Markets Graduate Training Scheme (ICMGTS).

“These programmes are de-signed to be relevant to the present-day demands of the industry, preparing partici-pants to strive for high per-formance while challenging them to incorporate values that would make them committed and improve their self-esteem. I am pleased that close to 90% of the graduates of our current programme, ie ICMGTS, have successfully gained employ-ment in the capital market in-dustry,’’ said Azman Hisham.

SIDC providing the right skills for the capital market industry

JeFFReY Sprecher, whose electronic IntercontinentalEx-change Inc (ICE) is buying NYSE Euronext, said human traders are still needed for buying and selling stock. Sprecher said the reliability of the New York Stock Ex-change (NYSE), where hu-mans stand on the trading floor, is one of the reasons his Atlanta-based company is buying the parent.

Trading in the US$20 trillion (RM62.97 trillion) US equity market is spread across 13 pub-lic exchanges and 44 actively operated alternative trading systems, according to a US Se-curities and Exchange Com-mission research paper this month. Almost all of them are electronic.

“Markets need a human touch,” the CEO of ICE said on Monday at an event in Atlanta held by the Atlanta Press Club.

“When there’s a problem in the market, business goes back to the floor. What we’re buying in the NYSE is the place where everyone goes in times of trou-ble or times when the market is wanting real certainty,” he added. “That’s the one you want to own.”

Sprecher said NYSE also has a competitive advantage, which it shares with Nasdaq OMX Group Inc, of conducting open-ing and closing auctions used by some of the world’s biggest money managers.

ICE agreed to purchase New York-based NYSE Eu-ronext in December, forming one of the world’s largest ex-change owners by the market value of its stock. ICE, a spe-cialist in energy trading, will expand through the deal into interest-rate swaps and US stocks. ICE expects to com-plete it on Nov 4, pending further regulatory approvals,

Sprecher said Monday.NYSE’s business was “adrift”

when ICE agreed to buy it, though the NYSE building in lower Manhattan remains an iconic symbol of American capitalism, Sprecher said.

“The NYSE building and what happens in that building is critically important,” he said. Although the number of tra-ders working there has dwin-dled over the years, Sprecher said more people could end up working there.

He said changes are forth-coming at NYSE, but he de-clined to describe them be-cause the transaction hasn’t closed yet.

One of Sprecher’s deputies said this month that rules governing US equities trad-ing should be pared back be-cause regulations have made the market vulnerable to breakdowns.

To improve the US stock

market, “I would probably start by getting rid of rules — and some pretty big rules,” Tom Farley, the senior VP of finan-cial markets at ICE, said on Oct 8 at a Baruch College confer-ence in New York. He declined to identify those he would pre-fer to eliminate.

“There’s been several signifi-cant rules that have been la-yered on in the last 15 years that have resulted in a costly and complex market,” he said two weeks ago.

Human market makers have been squeezed out of US stocks by declining profitability. To spur trading, exchanges use a pricing model known as ma-ker-taker to coax computerised trading firms to facilitate trans-actions.

“I don’t like maker-taker,” Sprecher said. “You shouldn’t pay people to trade,” he added. Market makers “need to be able to earn a living.” — Bloomberg

Sprecher sees continuing human roles at NYSE

SIDC plays a pivotal role in facilitating the expected growth by building human capital for the capital market

Participants at the annual Islamic Markets Seminar. Azman Hisham (bottom right) says that in carrying out the SIDC mandate, continuous innovation, improvement and perseverance is required to ensure that programmes developed are relevant and add value to the target audiences

A L L B U S I N E S S D A I L Y

24 • FRIDAY • OCTOBER 25, 2013

Talent Human Capital

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is published by SYED HUSSAIN PUBLICATIONS SDN BHD (25343-K) of Redberry City, Lot 2A, Jln 13/2, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03-7495 3000 Fax: 03-7495 3200 and Printed by KHL PrINTINg CO SDN BHD (235060-A) Lot 10&12, Jalan Modal 23/2, Seksyen 23 Kawasan Miel Phase 8, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: 03-5541 3695 Fax: 03-5541 3712