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CLPSCECI: A CLPS Institute

CLPS presents CECI

Centre for Economic & Competition Intelligence

Pakistan's specialist corridor for economic security, competition, FDI intelligence, and regulatory implementation.

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What CECI is

CECI is the independent, non-profit institute dedicated to economic security and competition intelligence in Pakistan.
CECI Founding Partner Concept Note

We connect regulators, law firms, banks, and corporates in a high-trust environment that rarely exists elsewhere in the market. Together with our founding partners, we develop practical intelligence and standards that shape how deals are structured, disputes are resolved, and compliance programmes are designed.

Our flagship, the FECSI Forum, is Pakistan's first invitation-led gathering of its kind: where legal-technical expertise meets regulatory reality to drive practical cooperation on economic security, competition, and FDI.

We deliver independent research through the Intelligence Suite, the Quarterly Brief, the Pakistan FDI & CCP Enforcement Monitor, and the Annual Economic Security & Competition Outlook, and convene practitioners through five practice-area Labs and Leaders Roundtables under the Chatham House Rule.

CECI is non-partisan and editorially independent by design. Sponsors have no control over research outputs or programme content, speaking allocation is merit-based, and annual accounts are audited.

practice-area tracks

curated FECSI attendees

Founding Patron slots only

The problem CECI solves

Pakistan has no shortage of legal conferences or policy seminars. What it lacks is a trusted, specialist platform convening senior law-firm partners, corporate and bank GCs, regulators, and foreign investors around the practical questions that govern cross-border deal structuring, dispute resolution, and compliance calibration.

The inflection points CECI addresses: SIFC and Gulf/Chinese FDI architecture; CCP enforcement modernisation; PDPA operationalisation; BIT exposure in state-linked infrastructure; SBP fintech regulation; and US/EU sanctions reach into Chinese-linked supply chains.

Concrete consequences

  • Pakistani cross-border M&A lawyers learn of EU FDI screening or CFIUS developments months behind London/Singapore counterparts, creating asymmetric deal risk.
  • In-house teams navigating PDPA 2023, CCP merger filings, or SIFC investment architecture lack a neutral, off-record forum to test interpretations with regulators.
  • Foreign investors entering via SIFC, bilateral channels, or DFI facilities lack an independent intelligence channel linking FDI architecture, competition clearance, and regulatory risk.
  • Law firms competing for cross-border mandates lack a specialist platform to demonstrate capability to GCs and BD targets in a deal-relevant context.

What CECI is

A permanent institute with five interlocking products, built to generate influence, intelligence, and revenue simultaneously, not a one-off event vehicle.

  1. FECSI Forum

    The premier invitation-led annual flagship conference for regulators, law firms, banks, and corporates on economic security, competition, FDI, and strategic investment

    2-day; 150–200 curated attendees; 5 practice-area tracks; Karachi or Lahore

  2. Leaders Roundtables

    Small-group, Chatham House Rule sessions on live implementation issues, the highest-intelligence-value product

    15–20 persons; quarterly; Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad

  3. Practice-Area Labs

    Five specialist labs aligned to law-firm practice groups

    Half-day; 8–12 seats; bi-annual per track; paid

  4. CECI Intelligence Suite

    Quarterly Brief; Pakistan FDI & CCP Enforcement Monitor (dashboard); Annual Economic Security & Competition Outlook

    Subscription; co-branded for sponsors

  5. Executive Training

    Paid workshops for in-house counsel/compliance teams; PBC CPD accreditation sought Year 2

    2–3/year; cohort format; certifiable

Five differentiators

01

Implementation-level, not generic.

Every session is anchored in real scenarios: active deal types, live enforcement patterns, current regulatory drafts. Faculty must have worked the issue, not merely written about it.

  1. 02

    The triangular room: regulators, business, law.

    Every major session requires at least one regulator/policy voice, one business decision-maker, one legal/advisory voice.

  2. 03

    Practice-group architecture.

    Five tracks aligned to law-firm practice groups, each with its own lab, roundtable, and intelligence output. Sponsorship maps directly to billable-practice strategy.

  3. 04

    Chatham House Rule as structural default.

    Public keynotes at FECSI for visibility; all roundtables, labs, and clinics closed-door and attribution-free.

  4. 05

    Actionable intelligence outputs.

    Post-session private summaries within 72 hours; co-branded Market Notes; quarterly deal-intelligence briefs; annual outlook.

Launch sequence: Year 1

  1. Phase 1

    Months 1–2

    Founding-partner conversations (3–5 anchor patrons); Founding Council formed; Advisory Group of 6–8 senior fellows, former regulators, and practitioners confirmed; programme advisory board constituted.

  2. Phase 2

    Month 3

    Inaugural Leaders Roundtable (Chatham House Rule): “SIFC, CCP, and the new FDI architecture for strategic sectors,” Karachi; post-session private summary circulated.

  3. Phase 3

    Month 4

    Inaugural Framing Paper: “Pakistan's Economic Security Landscape: FDI, Competition, and Regulatory Risk in 2025–2026,” distributed for co-branded client circulation.

  4. Phase 4

    Months 5–7

    Programme build: Lab invitations issued; regulatory confirmations secured; FECSI programme designed with practice-area partners; Quarterly Brief Issue 1 circulated.

  5. Phase 5

    Months 8–10

    FECSI Year 1: flagship forum, 150–180 attendees, 2 days + founding-patron dinner; Annual Outlook published and co-branded; post-FECSI summary within 1 week.

  6. Phase 6

    Month 12+

    Year 2 planning: renewal conversations, new practice-area outreach, PDPA Compliance Roundtable, second M&A Lab, intelligence-suite subscriptions opened to non-sponsors.

Trust & credibility

Governance and independence

Editorial independence is non-negotiable. Sponsors have no editorial control over research outputs, programme content, or roundtable themes; speaking allocation is merit- and relevance-based, not transactional; the Chatham House Rule is structurally enforced; the founding advisory board includes members with no commercial affiliation to current sponsors; and annual accounts are audited.

Five structural safeguards secure CECI's independence from the organisations that sponsor it.

Read the independence safeguards

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