SET rolls out 3-year strategic plan, gearing towards the 'Next Normal' with more innovations for positive impacts on society and environment

Friday 08 January 2021 15:07
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) announces the 3-year strategic plan (2021-2023) under a theme of the "Redefine Thai Capital Market Resiliency," aiming at integrating innovation and maximizing efficiency to all participants in the Thai capital market. The plan comprises 8 key strategies under the sustainability framework, covering 4 areas: 1) Market growth through supply-side opportunity boost and rapid investor expansion; 2) Infrastructure expansion through building engagement and venturing new frontiers; 3) Environmental and social development through ESG cultivation and social empowerment; and 4) Continuous improvement & talent empowerment through business scalability and operational excellence. The 3-year plan will be the main tool for implementing strategies to increase business opportunity for the overall capital market as well as create substantial positive social and environmental impacts to achieve a balanced growth between business and society.
SET rolls out 3-year strategic plan, gearing towards the 'Next Normal' with more innovations for positive impacts on society and environment

SET President Pakorn Peetathawatchai said that SET has transitioned to the 'Next Normal,' by tailoring products to serve the investors' needs and acting as a key fundraising source for the country to navigate the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world. The SET's 3-year development framework is aimed to create balanced growth between social and business development to get the market ready for the rapidly changing digital technology, dynamic economic, and social and environmental landscapes. The framework is also to make the capital market a beneficial tool to all stakeholders, in line with SET's vision "To Make the Capital Market 'Work' for Everyone."

The four Pillars of Sustainability Framework comprising 8 key strategies:

  1. Market Growth

1.1) Boost supply-side opportunities: support fundraising for new business ventures such as new economy, foreign securities, subsidiaries of listed companies, SMEs, and startups in a way that suits their risks and type of investors while promoting data utilization to foster business innovation.
1.2) Rapid investor expansion: prioritize the adoption of digital technology to develop investment channels and contents, and enhance knowledge to attract new generation investors and enable them to access necessary knowledge, open their trading accounts and start their investment quickly and conveniently. The SET will also create new investment channels to reach a more diverse and wider group of investors as well as promoting the Thai capital market to international communities through online channels and offering thematic products and services to match institutional investors' needs.

  1. Infrastructure expansion

2.1) Building engagement: develop infrastructure for listed companies and operators
in the capital market, build a business data platform, promote ESG reporting, address regulatory obstacles and explore appropriate trading fees structure to increase business potential and operational efficiency of business operators.

2.2) Venturing new frontiers: develop digital infrastructure for the Thai market, add products with international exposure and provide a digital asset platform to widen business opportunities and revenue streams to the capital market's operators while offering new investment alternatives to investors.
3. Environmental solutions & Social Development
3.1) ESG cultivation: encourage listed companies to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles into their business practices to attain sustainable investment and maintain the regional leadership in ESG. In addition, SET has partnered with alliances to raise environmental awareness in tackling climate change through 'Care the Bear Care the Whale' and 'Care the Wild' projects.
3.2)Social empowerment: set sight on becoming the country's financial literacy center by providing the public with basic financial skills in day-to-day life. Moreover, SET plans to develop a capital market research platform, and bolster potential and capture more business opportunities for social enterprises through Social digital platform.

  1. Continuous improvement & Talent empowerment

4.1) Business scalability: upgrade securities trading system and cyber security to be consistent with international standards and relevant laws, as well as collaborate with partners to launch a one-stop service to serve needs of businesses and investors.

4.2) Operational excellence: deploy technology to maximize operational efficiency, streamline operational processes by adopting the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology, focus on risk and crisis management and communications, level up employee potential and build a working environment that suits the new normal.

Key developments and achievements in 2020

On the business aspect:

  • Market capitalization of new listing at initial public offerings (IPO) totaled THB 555 billion (approx. USD 18.44 billion), the 8th biggest IPO market in the world and the 2nd spot in Asia. Moreover, SET Group topped ASEAN's IPO league table for a second-straight year (Asia's 2nd ranking and ASEAN's top IPO market excluded cross-border products). Central Retail Corporation pcl (CRC) marked Thailand's largest-ever fund-raising deal and the world's second-largest IPO in the retail industry.
  • SET has been the most liquid stock market in ASEAN since 2012. In 2020, there were 22 trading days with daily trading value exceeding THB 100 billion, and the year's highest trading value amounted to THB 170 billion while SET's average daily trading value was at THB 67.33 billion.
  • TFEX recorded an average daily trading volume of over 494,000 contracts, coming in the 26th rank in the world.
  • The number of trading accounts rose by 662,678 accounts from end-2019 to 3.43 million accounts. (as of November, 2020).
  • Regulations, such as market disruption and circuit breaker measures, have been tweaked to cope with market volatility.
  • Services have been further upgraded to fully digitized through e-Proxy, e-Meeting and e-Conference services.
  • Additional products and services linked to the global market, such as S&P500 DW, Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) DW, Silver Online Futures, and Japanese Rubber Futures, were launched.
  • SET has collaborated with tech companies to develop financial innovation including M-DAQ, the real-time prices of SET50 Index's constituents showed in 10 different foreign currencies; and the end-to-end digital asset platform under partnership with KBTG.
  • SET has provided more investment opportunities through new channels, such as a partnership with 16 financial service providers to launch "Point to Invest" project, a credit card point redemption for mutual funds' unit; and a collaboration with Ascend Money Co., Ltd. to offer "Start Invest" scheme, a mutual fund account opening and trading service through True Money Wallet which has over 15 million users.
  • SET has made a shift to working from home as a new way of working, and has launched measures to relieve the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak, as well as has implemented effective internal communications with employees.

On the quality aspect:

  • 21 Thai listed companies have been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), the highest among ASEAN, while 7 Thai listed companies gained the world's highest scores in 7 industrial groups.
  • SET has upgraded its LiVE platform to become a hub to unlock potential of SMEs and startups for solid and sustainable growth in all aspects.
  • SET is well-positioned to follow the Personal Information Protection Act (PDPA) guidelines and improve the industrial standards of cyber security under the PDPA and ISO27701.
  • SET, in close collaboration with its alliances, has continuously tackled global warming through 'Care the Wild' project, a platform to expand forest areas in compliance with good governance principles regarding information disclosure to monitor, learn, and nurture. 'Care the Wild' is the project extended from 'Care the Bear' and 'Care the Whale'.

Source: SET Corporate Communications