ICPAS-AFA Seminar on ASEAN Regionalisation Prospects and Capital Markets

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS) held a seminar on ASEAN Regionalisation Prospects and Capital Markets, in conjunction with the 98th ASEAN Federation of Accountants (AFA) Council meeting in Singapore recently.

The Guest-of-Honour to the event was Dr Ahmad Magad, the member of Parliament for Pasir Ras-Punggol GRC in Singapore. During his keynote address, Dr Ahmad spoke about the influence of changing demography and technology as the main drivers of regionalisation, particularly in the ASEAN region. He also touched on areas of growth such as infrastructure, energy, new media, healthcare and tourism which should be seriously considered by the ASEAN business community. Dr Magad also urged the small medium enterprises to explore new markets and create more value add products in capturing opportunities created by various free trade agreements in the region.

Earlier, the ICPAS President Dr Ernest Kan urged the participants of the forum to consider the opportunities in ASEAN. He cited the ASEAN Plus approach taken by certain ASEAN countries in harmonisation of the rules of their capital markets as a positive sign of collaboration among ASEAN member countries. The AFA President, Pengiran Haji Mokhsin, welcomed the participants and shared with them the history and strategic direction of AFA.

Later, the participants learned about the development and opportunities in intra-ASEAN public offerings by the presentation made by Richard Teng, Senior Vice-President and Head, Issuer Regulation, Singapore Stock Exchange Limited. Richard also shared the historical development of the Singapore Stock Exchange and how foreign issuers have been tapping capital from Singapore. He sees the potential in positioning ASEAN as a consolidated hub for capital-raising in view of the combined GDP of ASEAN countries of around US 1.5 trillion.

Dr Ahmad, Dr Ernest, Richard and Pengiran Mokhsin later participated in a panel discussion which was moderated by Nik Mohd Hasyudeen, AFA Vice-President. Apart from detailing further the theme of the seminar the panelists took questions from the floor about on matters related regional opportunities in ASEAN.