to access funding and support for their innovation and expansion plans. c. as mr koh boon hwee, chairman of sgx, said during our first review group meeting, the review is not about sgx as a company. i fully agree with boon hwee, 2 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches and this is aligned with our strategic approach for the review. the focus is not about sgx, but about growing singapore's equities market. d. to be clear, sgx has been performing well, including in equities derivatives and fixed income, currency and commodity ( or ficc ) business segments3. and if we succeed in growing our equities market, sgx as a company will certainly also benefit from the growth because a rising tide will lift all boats. however, the review group's scope extends beyond sgx ; we are considering the broader capital market and enterprise financing landscape. e. at the core of our strategy, we are focusing on strengthening the supply of good companies and creating a strong financial ecosystem to support their growth. we have to complement this with a broader range of products to draw in demand from a larger pool of investors, both institutional and retail investors. besides the members of the review group and its two workstreams, we are actively engaging stakeholders from across the enterprise financing and market ecosystems – including start - ups, enterprises, banks, fund managers, market intermediaries, and investors such as those that sias represents. i am heartened by the strong interest from industry stakeholders and the public since the launch of our review last month. i would like to thank everyone for your views and suggestions, including some members in the audience who have written to my colleagues and i to share your feedback and ideas. we hope to continue to engage with you as we study the different ideas and initiatives. we can group the ideas into three main areas : a. encouraging pipeline of quality listings ; b. enhancing investor participation and broadening market liquidity ; and c. re - evaluating our regulatory structures and approach. please allow me to briefly elaborate on each one. encouraging pipeline of quality listings singapore is globally recognised as a leading startup hub in asia, with a vibrant startup and innovation ecosystem supporting the growth of promising startups. today, we have over 4, 500 tech startups, 400 venture capital firms as well as 240 incubators and accelerators. through the startupsg initiative, enterprise singapore has supported many entrepreneurs and startups,

do what is necessary to sustain china's growth and ensure political and social stability. chinese leaders and officials, both in beijing and the provinces, are pragmatic and in touch with the people. they understand the problems. they are prepared to learn from others, and they learn fast. one of singapore's former chief planners, now working in the private sector, told me this. he had imparted singapore's experience on town planning to some chinese officials, while doing a planning project for the chengdu government. chengdu is the capital of sichuan province, which has a population bigger than germany's. recently, these officials invited him back to do a critique of their strategic plan for an area many times bigger than singapore. he was astonished by the quality of their work - the depth of their research and the strength of their reasoning power. those who have been to shanghai or beijing in the 80's and today will understand the point i am making. the speed with which the chinese are learning and catching up is awesome. china will also face the trickier problem of managing the demand for political change and greater political participation as it becomes a middle income country. nevertheless, i believe that the cohesiveness of chinese society and the social contract between the government and people would remain in the foreseeable future. communism may have failed worldwide but in china, the communist party of china ( cpc ) has succeeded in providing the people with security, stability and prospects for a better life. what the chinese people fear most is chaos and a slide back to poverty. a revitalised asean third, asean. southeast asia is strategically positioned between india and china. asean does not regard the re - emergence of india and china as a threat. instead, it is responding in a positive and strategic manner. asean is positioning itself to borrow the strengths of these two giants to boost its growth. some of you may have watched martial arts movies starring jackie chan or jet li. ). there is a movement in tai chi called to'use four taels to deflect a thousand pounds'( using this movement, a smaller - built tai chi master borrows the strength of his bigger sparring partners to achieve victory. asean's total trade with china and india has grown significantly over the past decade, and in 2005 amounted to us $ 130 billion and us $ 22 billion respectively. asean is working hard to ensure that free trade agreements ( ftas ) with china and india are completed by 2010