The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) announces its strategic plan for 2017, driven by the vision “To Make the Capital Market ‘Work’ for Everyone.”
SET aims to expand its fund raising coverage to competitive s-curve industry, startup businesses, as well as strengthening Thai aging society in term of wealth creation, reinforcing SET mission toward inclusiveness and sustainable growth.
The goal is to develop the capital market for all stakeholders, while building up the foundation for the Thai capital market, economy, society, and the country in line with the government’s new economic model “Thailand 4.0.”
A particular focus will be put on seeking high competitiveness industries, while establishing
an ecosystem conducive for startup companies for fundraising.
SET and its partners aim to build an investment culture via digital platforms,
while promoting Investment Saving Plan (ISP) to allow Thais to get ready for an
upcoming aging society. While SET will continue to provide and develop excellent
infrastructure and capability in accordance with international practices,
Moreover, SET as regional connector will join Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and
Vietnam (CLMV) to launch CLMV index to promote high potential businesses in the
region.
SET Chairman Chaiyawat Wibulswasdi said that the capital market has been an
instrumental driving force for the economic development. In 2017, SET has thus
set a vision to continuously develop the capital market to ensure sustainable
and inclusive growth for all stakeholders. This would reinforce the government’s
“Thailand 4.0 economic model” to enhance Thailand’s economic competitiveness.
SET President Kesara Manchusree also elaborated that SET has set out the 2017
strategic goal to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, covering three
areas:
1. Fund-raising Cultivator: to expand fundraising opportunities through various approaches
- – To attract newly listed securities focusing on Thailand’s competitive
industries and clusters such as food and energy, state-enterprises’
infrastructure funds and common stocks, as well as potential foreign listing,
while providing fund-raising knowledge to potentially high-growth small and
medium-sized enterprises and start-up companies - – To enhance the quality and capability of listed companies by facilitating
fundraising tools, as well as encouraging them to adopt the environment, social,
and governance (ESG) principles. In addition, SET will enhance capabilities of
social enterprises through various programs including “SET Social Impact
Platform” – an online platform to connect both businesses and investors for
collaborative synergy. It will also increase efforts to raise the international
recognition for listed firms through roadshows, “Dow Jones Sustainability
Indices” (DJSI), “MSCI Index”, and the upcoming “CLMV Index”. - – To build start-up ecosystem to strengthen the knowhow and readiness for
raising capital funds. In this regard, it plans to launch the start-up trading
platform in Q3/2017.Overall, SET expects to increase market capitalization via initial public
offering (IPO) by THB 280 billion and through existing listed companies by THB
270 billion, totaling THB 550 billion. Following the above target, competitive
industries are expected to contribute 25 percent of new listing.
2. Investment Cultivator: to enhance investment and develop investment literacy
of stocks, mutual funds, and provident funds, through digital platforms.
– To foster an investment culture by creating a long-term investor base in
keeping with an aging society. In this regard, SET and its partners will promote
ISP through online application, while creating and an investment portal as a
knowledge hub for multi-asset class investment.
– To educate Thai people to diversify investment into provident funds and
encourage employers to provide employee’s choice schemes for provident funds
– To launch the “FundConnext”- a technology-enabled fund service platform
enabling investors to access mutual funds efficiently (March 2017). SET plans to
develop the platform to serve as a central registrar for mandatory provident
funds.
For this part of the strategy, SET targets to attract 110,000 retail investors
from equity and derivatives markets.
3. Excellent Infrastructure and Capability
to develop the capital marketinfrastructure and standardize operational practices, as well as to bridgeinvestment opportunities with global market through digital platforms,including:
– To continuously develop infrastructure such as open architecture and cyber
security in line with international standards
– To standardize the clearing and settlement securities process, preparing for
the two business days clearing and settlement cycle of securities trading (T+2)
– To cooperate with other regional exchanges on foreign listing
“SET’s 2017 strategic plan will help create a new “S-curve” by facilitating new
competitive industry to gain easier access to capital funds and enhance
capabilities for start-up companies. This is in line with the government’s
policy to synergize efforts from the public and private sectors to enhance
Thailand’s sustainable development,” Chaiyawat commented.
In 2016, SET achieved key milestones and maintained its leading position in
ASEAN with SET index is best performer among ASEAN-5, up 15 percent at 1,485.68
points (as of November 22, 2016), the average daily trading value at THB 53.44
billion, being the highest in ASEAN for five consecutive years. Market
capitalization of new listing at initial public offerings totaled THB 136.66
billion, the highest among ASEAN5, while fundraising of listed companies from
secondary market was worth a combined THB 273.47 billion (as of end-October).
The combined market capitalization of SET and Market for Alternative Investment
(mai) rose 18 percent from the end of last year to THB 14.88 trillion, On the
quality aspect, 14 Thai listed companies have been included in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Indices (DJSI), highest among ASEAN, while the average corporate
governance (CG) of Thai listed companies from ASEAN CG Scorecard has been
constantly increased, showing that Thai listed companies have continued to
upgrade their CG practices.
