Bangkok, April 10, 2015 - The SEC summarized the development and supervision on the capital market from late 2011 to early 2015 with achievements in lifting up the Thai capital market to match the international standards, enhancing trustworthiness with up-to-date supervisory and preventive measures, promoting the capital market to become the fundraising channel for all businesses and important investment destination of the region.

Vorapol Socatiyanurak, SEC Secretary-General said that ?During October, 2011- April, 2015, the SEC has been striving forward the Thai capital market with the emphasis on development in preparation for ever changing global trend and economic environment. This aimed at building trust and sustainability, creating opportunity for business enterprises and the public to access as well as making use of capital market and increasing competitiveness in the global arena to attract investment from global investors.

The SEC has widened access to the capital for SMEs thorough the ?Pride of the Provinces? Project where more than 30 Project participants has listed their shares while the ?Pride in Thai Innovative and Creative Businesses? Project has been launched to support expansion of those businesses. Furthermore, crowdfunding regulations have recently be enacted in support of new fundraising channel in the wave of global trend whereas private equity trust has been introduced as a fundraising vehicle for the SMEs. Besides, the SEC also promotes issuance of corporate bonds to manage costs through the ?First Step Beyond with Bond Issues? Project.

Importantly, the SEC has introduced infrastructure fund as a vehicle to promote fundraising of both private and public sectors for infrastructure development. The infrastructure fund is of benefit for the development of the country and ease of government budget and public debt as it can invest in the infrastructure projects of electricity, roads, airport, for instance. In addition, recently the investible infrastructure assets have been revised to include pipeline transport, waste management, ICT infrastructure and projects with various kinds of infrastructure assets.

Under the SEC strategic plan, the SEC aims the Thai capital market to become the GMS Connector and therefore tightened the relationship with our neighboring countries, aiming to grow together. Mekong Capital Market Cooperation (MCMC) has been established under a memorandum of understanding signed with the capital market regulators of Laos PDR., Cambodia and Vietnam for cooperation on capital market development where the signatories take turn to host the meeting. Among ASEAN nations, the cooperation has been clearly developed and led to the announcement of ASEAN Disclosure Standards and ASEAN Collective Investment Scheme Framework, CG standards assessment to provide comparative data on intra- region listed companies. At the global level, the SEC facilitated the opportunity for Thai intermediaries to sell the products in renowned markets; China, Japan and Korea, for example, while the cooperation with the European Union (EU) has been established to allow offer for sale of units of Thai mutual fund in EU.
 

Vorapol explained that ?The SEC has issued the regulations to support the Thai capital market to become the GMS Connector as follows:
(1)  Supporting fundraising of foreign companies, especially GMS countries to list their shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand by enacting primary listing regulations for those not having their shares listed on any exchange and secondary listing regulations for those having their shares listed on other exchanges already.
(2) Creating infrastructure trust as a new fundraising mechanism in Thailand for development of offshore infrastructures, including those in GMS countries.
(3) Setting criteria to create GMS asset class by allowing Thai mutual funds to invest in listed securities in GMS countries up to 100% of the NAV with specified diversification which will help promote competitiveness for Thai mutual fund industry as well.
(4) Putting in place mechanism facilitating investment in foreign securities listed offshore through Depositary Receipt or DR which representing deposited foreign securities, including those listed on exchanges in GMS countries.

For the effort put in developing the regulations and elevating business operations through the exchange of views between the SEC and the executives of listed firms in the ?SEC for CEO Forum? Project, sustainable development has become more focus whereas private sector was urged to express their intention to join Collective Action Coalition against Corruption. All the aforesaid have led to concrete improvement in the aspect of corporate governance where Thailand obtained 82.83 out of 100 in CG ROSC assessment while ranked the third in Asia in CG Watch assessment and assessed with the highest score among six ASEAN countries in ASEAN Scorecard 2013/2014.

Moreover, the SEC has put a lot of efforts to uplift audit quality which has gain international recognition. This has been evidenced by International Forum of Independent Audit Regulator or IFIAR?s acceptance as a member showing that the SEC is independent from the professionals and auditor supervision in line with international practices. In addition, the European Union?s endorsement on auditor supervision has brought about even more investor confidence in Thai financial reporting system and auditor quality.

In the area of supervision on intermediaries and business operators, the SEC set the mechanism to support investor protection by revising business conduct regulations to enhance responsibilities of the intermediaries in selling products and providing services appropriately. More flexibility has also been provided for both investors and fundraisers, such as heightened derivatives investment ratio, revised offering regulations for Basel III instruments and revised business conduct regulations to facilitate providing of services in foreign products. Furthermore, the SEC has worked with relevant organizations in preparation for integration of the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET) and Thai Futures Exchange (TFEX) which will be beneficial in term of economy of scale. It will also be more convenient for investors to invest in single market with both agricultural and non-agricultural futures. The preparation of integration covered the products, exchanges, business operators and related personnel.  

With respect to law reform, the proposals pushed by the SEC have shown progress; for example, the amendments to law on securities and exchange to introduce civil sanction and self-regulatory organization in the capital market (SRO), the amendment to the Civil Procedure Code to enable class action law suits, the amendment to law on securitization to be in line with international practices and the amendment to law on provident fund to allow more flexibility for the fund and the members? savings for their resignation and retirement. 

Vorapol further noted that ?One of the most important and indispensable issues is promotion of financial literacy both in terms of educating the public and research on capital market issues. The promotion of financial literacy aims to disseminate financial knowledge to the public to attain financial security and lessen inequality. A number of projects were initiated including creation of www.moneywellplan.com, targeting the first jobbers, preparation of a manual for mutual fund investment and FL in workplace, a campaign to raise public awareness in making investment consistently through ?A Thousand Baht, Start a Journey to your Dream? Project. Also, the cooperation between the SEC and 17 alliances has been founded in the Project called ?Financial Literacy: Road to Thailand?s Prosperity?,

On the promotion and development of research papers on capital market issues, the SEC in collaboration with leading business schools of the universities namely Chulalongkorn University, Thammasat University, Kasetsart University and National Institute of Development Administration, have organized the SEC Working Papers Forum every month to provide a venue of presentation of research papers on capital market issues, exchange of knowledge and implementation.

 ?Over the past years, the SEC has moved under the strategic plan covering a wide array of developments with a view to creating visibility and attractiveness of the Thai capital market to global investors. The capital market has been ready to serve all businesses by providing their access to capital in the appropriate means while offering a variety of products and services. Meanwhile, quality of investors must be emphasized. Last but definitely not least, it is very crucial to build up sustainability, uphold investor confidence and adhere to good governance principles. With good governance, the capital market will attract investment.? Vorapol added