SET President Pakorn Peetathawatchai said, "The awards recognize the dedication and determination of SET and its stakeholders to cultivate the growth for the Thai capital market and the country under the vision 'To make the capital market work for everyone'. Our vision and effective execution yielding fruitful results have placed SET as one of the leading capital markets in Asia in numerous quantitative and qualitative measures, including high average daily trading value, the amount of capital raised for domestic and global expansion of Thai listed companies, and the number of companies acknowledged internationally by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices."
Winning the "Best Stock Exchange in Advanced Emerging Market 2018" underlines SET's leading position in the international arena. With the focus on innovation, SET has developed the entire ecosystem by adopting cutting-edge technologies and engaging stakeholders to enhance the Thai capital market's competitive advantage in order to respond to the rapidly changing environment. The Thai exchange is transforming both its business model and market infrastructures to make the Thai capital market a preferred regional fundraising venue equipped with open architecture and interoperable platforms, for example payment system, mutual fund distribution platform, and digital identity, in order to steer the country towards the digital economy. SET also highlights its position as a market of well-being, which includes tourism, healthcare, food and infrastructure, as one of the country's and SET's key strengths to offer growth potential for global investors. In particular, our role has expanded from providing investment opportunities in Thailand to becoming a bridge that connects investors worldwide to a wide-ranging opportunity in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV).
For two consecutive years, SET has won the "Best Sustainable Securities Exchange - Southeast Asia Emerging Markets 2018." The stock exchange's journey in leading and committing to sustainability development has formally commenced when SET became the first exchange in ASEAN to join the United Nations' Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative in 2014. SET promotes listed companies' business models to incorporate best practice into the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects including the initiation of various practical projects to enhance community and social development, aiming at creating enabling conditions for inclusive growth.
Balancing long-term growth and responding to current needs, SET's ongoing endeavor to promote inclusiveness includes, among other things, cultivating local investors as evidenced by the number of investors has doubled over the past five years and building a conducive ecosystem to facilitate the growth of SMEs and start-ups to gain access to an alternative funding source to help leapfrog their growth.
"We have built partnership to ensure our capital market benefits stakeholders at all level and to create a sustainable future," Pakorn said.
CFI.co is a print journal and online resource reporting on business, economics and finance. Headquartered in London, the journal addresses economic, political and business factors affecting emerging markets and helps to identify regions, industry sectors and companies that will succeed. To inspire others to further improve their own performance, the awards are based on opinion surveys of readers and a distinguished judging panel.