Library Board (NLB) and Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to forge a strategic partnership leveraging on the domain expertise and resources of SGX, and the information management expertise and resources of NLB. Under the MOU, both parties jointly launched a new service called Investment Resource and Information Service (IRIS) @National Library.
The MOU is the first collaboration by both organisations who share the same vision of promoting Singapore as a financial hub. The collaboration aims to provide the general public convenient access to information on SGX-listed as well as selected regional companies, investment and financial data. The partnership also includes organising a series of investment education programmes for Singaporeans to improve their financial literacy and help them to make educated investment decisions. These programmes will be conducted at NLB's network of public libraries.
The highlight of the partnership is the establishment of IRIS at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. IRIS serves to provide investment resources and reference materials for investors, researchers and library users who wish to invest primarily in the Singapore securities and derivatives markets, but may also foray into selected regional markets. IRIS has put in place six terminals which will provide access to financial and SGX archive investment resources. Three of the terminals are dedicated to independent research reports, market data and trading tools as well as investment software. In addition, IRIS also provides hard copies of information on listed companies. SGX will also look into making historical information of Singapore listed companies available digitally.
Dr N Varaprasad, Chief Executive of NLB said, "As Singapore aspires to be Asia's financial hub, the demand for investment knowledge and resources by Singaporeans will increase. I am very glad that the National Library is able to form a network of knowledge assets leveraging on strategic partners such as SGX. NLB is continually developing and offering new and enhanced services to our library users."
Mr Hsieh Fu Hua, CEO of SGX added, "NLB's partnership allows us to reach a broader audience. The community can now easily access investment material. This will boost our efforts to promote retail participation in our market."
