Future roadmap: The HKEx Strategic Plan 2007-09 has been released.

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing has rolled out its strategic plan for 2007-09, providing a roadmap in the next three years along the themes of reinforcing its position vis-a-vis the Mainland, further expanding business and improving service delivery and quality.

Presenting the plan at the Securities Institute roundtable luncheon today, HKEx Chief Executive Paul Chow said aided by favourable market conditions, the body has made good progress in the listing of Mainland enterprises, including major state banks and insurance companies.

As at November 30, there were 1,159 listed companies in Hong Kong, with a market capitalisation of $12.197 trillion, a total of $424.8 billion equity funds raised and an average daily turnover of $32.8 billion. Among the listed companies, 354 came from the Mainland, which accounted for 48% of the market capitalisation and 73% of the total equity funds raised. For more details, click here.

New challenges

Noting Hong Kong has become the major capital formation centre in the Asian region, Mr Chow said new challenges and opportunities are emerging and HKEx has to bolster its overall performance and advance its mission to be a leading international marketplace for securities and derivatives products focused on Hong Kong, the Mainland and the rest of Asia.

Under the strategic plan, 16 key initiatives grouped under five key areas are identified to achieve the objective:

* listing - complete Growth Enterprise Market review and related market development, implement 'statutory backing', and open the equity listing regime to issuers from overseas jurisdictions;

* trading - improve trading rights regime, address barriers to Cash and Derivatives Markets trading, introduce further Mainland-related and renimbi-denominated products, and explore new product and service areas;

* clearing - facilitate overseas-based clearing participants, and improve investor participant and stock segregated accounts services;

* corporate - strengthen the accountability regime within HKEx, review its organisation structure and resources deployment, consolidate it offices and data centres, and review fee structure; and,

* information technology - review HKEx information technology systems for possible efficiency improvement.

Details of the 16 key initiatives are available here.

Substantial improvements

Mr Chow anticipated that by the end of implementing its Strategic Plan 2007-09, HKEx should have substantially improved its overall performance level.

By the end of 2009, HKEx should have:

* further strengthened its position vis-a-vis the Mainland, including capturing more Mainland-related listings, trading more Mainland-related products, and engaging more Mainland-related participants and investors;

* expanded its business into new areas, including developing an Asian focus and diversifying into new product types;

* become a more business-orientated organisation, with accountability for business results more directly assigned to senior management, and market mechanisms and procedures that better facilitate business flow; and,

* improved its service offering and strengthened the internal infrastructure supporting service delivery.