The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has recently hosted “GMS Capital Market Education Forum 2014” for the second consecutive year at the Faculty of Business Administration, Chiang Mai University, Thailand to exchange expertise among capital markets in Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) including experts from Japan and Korea in cascading knowledge to investors. The meeting of GMS’s executives agreed to cooperate with leading universities in each country to enhance capital market knowledge for investors and the general public, as well as capital market professionals, while jointly draft license issuing and renewal standards for professionals in the capital markets.
This year’s forum, held during November 7-9, was under the “Investor Education: A key driver for capital market growth” concept. It reinforced SET’s leadership role to synergize development of capital markets in the GMS.
SET President Kesara Manchusree said that the forum’s essence and expertise were shared by capital market’s top executives’ education field, regulatory agencies, central banks in the GMS, consisting of Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. It focused on exchanging experiences in developing educational tools for investors which would be key to move forward the capital markets in the region, as well as seeking ways to promote investors more efficiently and sustainably. In addition, the forum also offered expertise by experts from Japan Exchange Group (JPX) and Korean Financial Investment Association (KOFIA). On top of this, participants visited SET Investment Center (SET IC) in Chiang Mai University to learn about one of SET’s educational activities in working with leading universities nationwide to provide the magnitude of investment knowledge. This was considered a practical way to help upgrade capital market’s education development in the GMS in the same standard.
It is significant that the forum agreed to create a unique strategy by cooperating with leading universities in each country, setting up each as an educational center for investors, general public and professionals. The next step is to develop contents and channels of knowledge distribution to all types of investors, including existing investors and potential investors. Furthermore, GMS Professional Education Working Committee (GMS PEWC), which was agreed to be established in 2013, accepted the general process of equity investment consultant licensing and the standard building blocks of professional knowledge, and a summary of knowledge structure standard for equity investment consultant license’s examination, encouraging regulators in each country to put efforts to amend process and content outline to ensure that the GMS capital markets uses the same standard.
Nguyen Van Dzung, Deputy CEO of Hanoi Stock Exchange, said that this year’s forum was a great chance for GMS exchanges and regulatory agencies to learn about each market’s typical market conditions and their corresponding capital market education activities. Afterwards, each country had to figure out the most suitable education strategy for their markets, both investor education and professional education within the region. Moreover, as the opinions were shared by GMS representatives, this would be a basic platform for more potential cooperation between GMS exchanges and regulators in the near future. There would certainly be a clear strategy with roadmap suitable for each typical domestic market which would be effective and sustainable, especially ones for the GMS professional education project.
Last year, the forum successfully and substantially applied information and experiences from each country for their educational development. For example, Cambodia’s stock regulator issued a training criterion to extend license and cooperated with SET for the first time to hold the license extension training for securities professionals in Cambodia. Lao Securities Exchange cooperated with SET to launch “Train the Trainers” program in order to develop personnel in the Lao capital market organizations to be training experts in publicizing securities knowledge for investors and prospects.