At a handover ceremony for the Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) chairman and president on 25th July 2006, former Senior Presidential Advisor and ROC Vice Premier Dr. Wu Rong-I took over as TAIFEX chairman, while Steve C. Wang, former Chairman of the Chinese National Futures Association, came on board as president. The ceremony was attended by Wu Tang-Chieh, Director General of the Financial Supervisory Commission's Securities and Futures Bureau (SFB), Lee Chi-Hsien (Deputy Director-General of the SFB), and many other financial industry luminaries, including top-ranking executives and officials from a number of agencies and firms active in the securities and futures industry.
In his address to the audience, SFB Director General Wu praised outgoing Chairman Wang Der-shan and outgoing President Foo-shiung Ho for their success and contributions over the past several years. He noted that Taiwan's futures market performed outstandingly under the leadership of Chairman Wang and President Ho, maintaining high market volume and taking big strides toward internationalization. The TAIFEX has actively sought to attract increased foreign participation in its market. It introduced index options for the electronics and finance sectors last year, for example, and followed up this year by launching US dollar denominated products and allowing foreign investors to engage in non-hedging futures trading and make use of omnibus accounts. In addition, the outgoing chairman and president have also organized roadshows overseas that have been extremely highly regarded. Director General Wu expressed that he hopes the industry can still benefit from their advice in the future so that the futures market will continue to progress, then he introduced the incoming Chairman Wu Rong-I, who has had a very distinguished career. After serving as head of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, he went on to be named Vice Premier, and the TAIFEX will undoubtedly benefit tremendously from his vision and erudition. Director General Wu noted that President Wang is in an excellent position to push for market improvements thanks to his long experience in the financial industry. Wu hoped his intimate understanding of the industry will help TAIFEX to new achievements.
Incoming Chairman Wu noted that Taiwan's world rank for futures market volume rose from 26th in the world in 2003 (on trading of 31,874,934 lots) to 18th in 2005 (92,659,768 lots). TAIFEX performed especially well in TAIEX option, which ranked number three worldwide in terms of annual trading volume, and has set an all-time single-day high of 940,000 lots. The annual trading volume is expected to exceed 100 million contracts in 2006. Chairman Wu pointed out that, with today's rapidly changing global capital markets and fierce international competition, development of the futures market is especially important because derivatives contribute to stable economic development by their hedging and price discovery functions. Chairman Wu said he felt very lucky to have the opportunity to serve as TAIFEX chairman, and promised to work hard to take advantage of the excellent foundation that has already been laid by the competent authorities, outgoing Chairman Wang, and others in the futures industry. In the future, said Chairman Wu, under the guidance of the competent authorities and the TAIFEX board of directors, and with the ongoing efforts of TAIFEX staff, he will continue working actively and innovatively to seize every available opportunity to develop the market, so as to give traders a fair, secure, efficient, professional, service-oriented, and internationally competitive futures market.
Incoming President Wang told attendants at the ceremony that he was very happy to join the TAIFEX because he was the president of the very first futures commission merchant established back in year one of the Taiwan futures market. Having long participated in the development of Taiwan's futures market, he harbors a special hope that industry players will learn to rely less on price competition and more on value-added services, such as managed futures trading and, eventually, futures investment trust funds, to spur further multifold growth in trading volume. President Wang pledged to work together with the competent authorities to further internationalize Taiwan's futures market in a bid to enhance the international stature of the TAIFEX, and asked for the continued support and guidance of industry players on this front.
