It will also improve the working of capital markets, so that the businesses can raise the capital they need more conveniently and at lower cost. Asian countries are now making greater efforts in regional financial cooperation. When these succeed, they will hopefully spur countries to go further. They recently launched a USD Asian Bond Fund. Although this did not lead to any big bang, it underscored the interest among Asian economies to develop their capital markets. In consultation with the private sector, regional central banks are now working on a local currency ABF. As a financial centre, Singapore is well placed to seize opportunities as regional markets integrate. We will pursue a two-pronged strategy. First, we will actively participate in regional initiatives with the objective of making Singapore a key “interchange” in regional financial flows. Within ASEAN and ASEAN+3, Singapore is leading initiatives to strengthen capital market capacity-building efforts and foster greater cross-border collaboration among regional capital markets. We are advocating the adoption of international capital market standards and practices in ASEAN as an essential market foundation. We are realistic that the regional market will take some time to develop and accept that we cannot force the pace. But we need to stay engaged and strengthen our linkages with the major economies and emerging regions, to offer high value-added activities and secure our place as a key node in the region. On our own, we are already working to establish exchange linkages with major markets to enlarge market coverage out of Singapore.

Deepening talent pool Third, deepening Singapore’s talent pool. As we move towards providing higher value-added services, we will face more intense competition for talent. We need to deepen our talent pool by training the local workforce whilst stepping up efforts to attract foreign talent with the requisite specialist skills. The industry needs professionals with market experience and skills to deal with the increasingly complex and volatile financial markets. To meet this demand, we need to enhance our training and development initiatives. Besides co-funding financial skills training under the Financial Sector Development Fund, we are actively promoting Singapore as a financial training hub. Discussions are now on-going with the newly established Wealth Management Institute and INSEAD as well as major institutions to develop corporate training centres and corporate universities. We would also like to build up Singapore’s financial research capabilities with an Asian and emerging market focus. We are currently exploring the possibility of establishing a financial research institute, in partnership with established financial research institutes worldwide. Enhancing market discipline To enhance market discipline, we have facilitated the establishment of industry-sponsored but independently-run complaints-handling processes and mechanisms for customers to settle disputes with banks and insurers. The banking industry now has a Consumer Mediation Unit and the insurance industry the Insurance Disputes Resolution Organisation (IDRO). Presently, we are working with the securities industry to study the feasibility of an industry-based dispute resolution scheme for the capital markets.