Only five of the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have viable stock exchanges, and exchanges from all five countries in February signed a memorandum of understanding to form a multilateral trading link through one access point by the year 2010, with the door open to other ASEAN exchanges as they emerge.
The five exchanges — Bursa Malaysia Berhad, Indonesia Stock Exchange, Phillipine Stock Exchange, Singapore Exchange, and the Stock Exchange of Thailand — are from the alliance’s five founding members, which have been urging the formation of a unified capital market by 2015.
“Offering a single platform is a starting point to achieve our 2015 vision of a more integrated ASEAN capital market with harmonized rules, regulations, and practices,” said Malaysian Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij.
The other five member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam — have long lagged behind the founding five.
