On 31 January 2008 the Warsaw Stock Exchange opened the second Central & Eastern European Market Forum (CEE Market Forum). The CEE Market Forum is the largest event in Eastern and Central Europe dedicated to investors, companies and institutions related to the capital market.
The CEE Market Forum 2008 was opened by Messrs Stanislaw Kluza - The Chairperson of PFSA (KNF), Micha? J. Chyczewski - Under-Secretary of State of the Ministry of Treasury, Jaroslaw Kochaniak - Deputy Mayor of Warsaw and Ludwik Sobolewski - President of the WSE Management Board.
The Forum was held under the patronage of Ms Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Mayor of the City of Warsaw.
At the opening debate entitled ‘Warsaw and the Warsaw Stock Exchange as the financial centre of Central and Eastern Europe’ the participants discussed the conditions that Warsaw and the Polish market ought to fulfill in order to establish the WSE as a regional financial centre.
During the discussion, Mr Ludwik Sobolewski said: ‘The fact that you are the biggest stock exchange in the region doesn’t mean that you are the regional centre. Currently we aren’t such a centre but we do have a great chance of becoming one. Discussing the founding factors of a regional centre, I recollect three images from previous months. The first image are last year’s articles in Ukrainian media, where we could find such statements as "A very good place to earn reputation for Ukrainian corporations are stock exchanges in London, Frankfurt and Warsaw." The second image is a meeting with the President of one of last year’s WSE entrants whose shares have already been listed in London. The President said: "Although we are listed on the London Stock Exchange, we have decided to float our shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange because we believe that a regional centre can be built here." The third image is a meeting in Davos with a representative of a regional bank who told me that he wants to become a WSE remote member because Warsaw has a chance of becoming a regional financial hub. The three images presented above explain the essence of the centre: market brand name as well as the presence of multinational intermediaries and corporations. In order to make the project of the Warsaw centre successful, the Polish capital market must not only be a centre of service but also a centre of innovation – at the WSE level equally well as at the supervision, analysis and advisory levels. Another essential issue, which lies somewhere beside the capital market, must be the infrastructure. It is very crucial that we can get from the Warsaw Airport to anywhere we want. Unfortunately, we are not there yet. ‘
Approximately 50 companies listed on the WSE Main List and NewConnect participated in the current edition of the CEE Market Forum. Among them, there were 7 foreign WSE-listed companies.
Warsaw Stock Exchange Awards of the year 2007 were presented to the market participants during the Evening Gala.
On Friday, 1 February, during the second day of CEE Market Forum, specialised workshops for investors were held and also lectures of the Stock Exchange School.
In the first edition of CEE Market Forum in 2007, approximately 50 companies and investment firms and close to 800 investors took part. Thanks to mutual engagement of many institutions (associations, investment firms, stock companies, future debutants, media) the event was a great success and contributed to building a broad and conscious shareholder community. The CEE Market Forum 2007 was undoubtedly the largest meeting of stock exchange investors and issuers of the Central and Eastern European region.