Its Chief Executive Officer, Yusli Mohamed Yusoff speaking at the 5th Annual Capital Markets Conference today outlined 3 strategic objectives as follows:
- Boost market liquidity and velocity
- Strengthen revenues by enhancing products and services
- Achieve operational scale and efficiency.
“Having successfully demutualised, the challenge for the Exchange remains in attracting investors rather, attracting the diversity of investors, and encouraging their active participation in the market,” Yusli said.
He said that the demutualisation exercise and the transformation process that has come along with it have facilitated the Exchange to formulate strategic business objectives that underscores its move towards evolving into a commercial organisation. He went on to add that these commercial considerations however will be balanced by a framework that is put in place to balance between the regulatory and commercial roles of the Exchange.
Whilst noting the certain key structural initiatives such as the reformation of the Government Linked Companies, the liberalisation of the intermediation business, the relaxation of the Guidelines on the Real Estate Investment trusts, he went on to note that Bursa itself was aggressively promoting the Exchange and the Malaysian capital market.
“In 2004, Bursa conducted road shows in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom. This year, bursa will be co-hosting its first ever reverse road show, Invest Malaysia 2005 in March, designed specifically for foreign fund managers,” he added.
He went on to say that 2005 will also see Bursa expanding its target audience beyond traditional market places, to Continental Europe, the Middle East and Japan. He noted that road shows had indeed been positive in clearing misconceptions namely on issues with regards to the capital control and corporate governance standards.
In its bid to extent the number of products and services offered, it was mentioned that Bursa will be introduce a price dissemination and repository system for the bond market by the end of the year. “This will replace the current system operated by Bank Negara and additionally Bursa will be implementing an electronic bond trading system,” he said.
As part of its business objectives Bursa is currently exploring new products and services, which include marketing its information services, introducing more derivatives products and exploring the possible re-introduction of restricted short selling and securities borrowing and lending.
Closer to home, Yusli noted that since the recent right sizing exercise Bursa has since embarked on a business process re-engineering exercise throughout the Exchange. This initiative will be a continuous effort in reviewing and updating Bursa’s processes and operations for maximum efficiency.
“Additionally, Bursa’s scheduled listing will allow greater public representation in the governance of the Exchange and will promote greater transparency and accountability to the benefit of both stakeholders and the market at large,” he added.
