SET, SZSE ink five-year cooperation pact

BANGKOK, April 24 (TNA) - The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on their five-year cooperation with its immediate effect. SET President Pakorn Peetathawatchai and SZSE executive vice-president Li Hui signed the MOU at the Thai bourse in Bangkok on April 23, based on the agreed China-Thailand SME Capital Market Service Initiative. The SET-SZSE MOU is emphasized on three cooperation areas, including rendering technological support for both Thai and Chinese startup firms, creating a business network between the SET and the SZSE and exploring approaches towards expanding financial and investment cooperation between the growing Thai and Chinese stock markets. The SET president then told journalists that under the MOU, the SET and the SZSE will also jointly develop a central online information platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of both countries and for a public access to learn on potential of the Thai and the Chinese economies. Besides, the SET and the SZSE will work together to develop their secondary markets, including the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) and the ChiNext to serve listed SMEs of both countries, as well as to organize roadshows and business matching events, aimed to promote both the Thai and the Chinese stock markets internationally and to develop such cross-listing investment products as DRs and ETFs issued by intermediaries, along with their cooperation on "green finance" plans. According to the SET president, cooperation between the SET and the SZSE began in 2009 and has steadily developed ever-since. The SZSE executive vice-president stated, meanwhile, that there are now 2,134 listed companies on the SZSE, with their total securities value of 2.41 trillion US dollars, ranked the world's 8th largest, and their average turnover of about 7.56 trillion US dollars, ranked the world's third place. The SZSE executive vice-president acknowledged that the SZSE is targeted by the Chinese government to become an Asian economic and investment hub, or an Asian Silicon Valle, where innovations and advanced technologies are mainly resorted to drive ahead business firms. The SZSE executive vice-president also expressed his appreciation to the agreed cooperation with the Thai bourse, which is in line with Beijing's "One Belt One Road" policy on connecting China with the ASEAN Community (AC) and South Asia. (TNA)