FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES
Osman Birsen
President of FEAS & Chairman and CEO of the
Istanbul Stock Exchange
The Federation,
together with its
members, is growing
and maturing into a
globally recognized
regional institution
identifiable for
achieving the goals
of our members.
The FEAS region entered the new year of 2003
with trepidation and watched with the world as
events unfolded in the area. In a surprise that
no one anticipated the strength of our markets,
while considered emerging yet becoming
experienced and more transparent, held firm in
the face of a potentially negative impact and
even exceeded record 1999-2000 levels in
trading statistics and market capitalization.
Evidence of the outstanding performance in
2003 can be seen in the consolidated regional
statistics on the adjoining pages. In addition,
we also would like to invite you to peruse the
individual statistics of each of our members in
the member profile section.
The Federation, together with its members, is
growing and maturing into a globally
recognized regional institution identifiable for
achieving the goals of our members. Founded
9 years ago by 12 regional exchanges, FEAS
now welcomes its 25th member, the Bucharest
Stock Exchange, approved by the General
Assembly last September, and looks toward the
possibility of accepting the application of the
Belgrade Stock Exchange as the 26th member
this September, a goal which strengthens not
only the institution, but also the region it
represents.
As we approach our tenth year of operation,
most of you are well aware of our
accomplishments to date; of those that were
particularly noteworthy are the implementation
of the FEAS Data Center (FDC) to standardize
and promote cross market statistics, the
movement toward cross border trading utilizing
the common trading platform model from the
SECI project, and the further harmonization of
rules and regulations in the FEAS Rule Book
through adoption of the 28 OECD/FEAS
developed guidelines ‘best practices’ manual
for stock exchanges in transition economies.
Other specific achievements promoted the
growth of stock exchange operators through
extensive training programs, such as the joint
OECD SME development project and
international associations with organizations
such as the World Bank.
However, as our markets continue to step up to
the challenges of the global arena, the greater
importance will be to turn our focus toward our
vision for the future and to participate in the
regional development over the next 5-10 years.
Our new 5-year strategic plan is designed to
achieve the objectives specified within the
mission of the Federation and to attain a
greater position in the competitive global
market environment. Our focus over the next 5
years will concentrate in the area of promoting
corporate governance, facilitating timely
disclosure, achieving effective dissemination of
information, attaining regional convergence in
listing requirements, settlement, trading rules
and software, creating greater awareness and
visibility for the region’s stocks and investment
opportunities, promoting the listing of
‘investment grade’ companies in the region’s
markets and creating linkages among the
regions intermediaries, data providers,
settlement and custody institutions and stock
exchanges while encouraging cooperation
among securities commissions. Please see the
Philosophy section of our Yearbook to obtain
the complete set of objectives for the
Federation.
The individual future outlook of our markets, as
contained in the member profile pages, shows
that there continues to be work toward the
challenges of member markets in providing
competitive and viable financing options to
both the government and private sectors, while
enhancing operations through technology and
expanding services to market participants. The
main effort continues to focus on the areas of
increased transparency through expense in
infrastructure and developing regulations to
promote stronger corporate governance.
It is with great pleasure that we welcome our
newest member, the Bucharest Stock
Exchange, and we look forward to their
contributions to our organization.
I would like to take a moment to extend my
heartfelt thanks to our Contributors: Takasbank,
the Istanbul Stock Exchange, Hewlett Packard,
Computershare, the Macedonian Stock
Exchange, the World Federation of Exchanges,
the IASB and Tayburn Kurumsal (also the
publisher of this report). We hope that you will
pay a visit to our contributor section in the
FEAS website at www.feas.org and read their
articles in the following pages.
In closing, I want to recognize the efforts of all
our members in achieving our regional
objectives through their commitment and to the
Secretariat for its success in maintaining our
cohesive organization. As we approach our
10th year anniversary our formula for
achievement will be applied toward our
development for the future.
FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES YEARBOOK 2003/2004
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