东盟加快资本市场一体化步伐

When executives from the Stock Exchange of Thailand gather in Bangkok next weekend to meet dozens of Thai investors, they will be taking a small but important step towards a new era for Asian capital markets.

本周末，当泰国证券交易所(Stock Exchange of Thailand)的高管齐聚曼谷会晤几十位泰国投资家时，他们将朝着亚洲资本市场的新时代迈出一小步。这一步虽小，却有着重要的意义。

The meeting will be the first in a series of “roadshows in coming months designed to sell the merits of a concept long in the making but whose promise has often seemed doubtful: a regional stock market linking the main exchanges of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

这场会议将是未来数月一系列“路演中的首场，这些路演旨在宣扬一个长期酝酿的概念的种种好处，这个概念就是：建立一个地区性股市，把东盟(ASEAN)的主要交易所连接起来。不过，这个概念的前景似乎一直存在疑问。

Investors will sit through presentations selling the “Asean Stars, made up of the top 30 stocks on Bursa Malaysia, and the Thai and Singaporean exchanges.

投资者将聆听大量宣传“东盟之星(Asean Stars)的演讲。东盟之星将由马来西亚股票交易所(Bursa Malaysia)、泰国证交所和新加坡交易所(SGX)的最优异的30支股票组成。

The campaign marks the first step in promoting the creation of the so-called Asean Exchanges, a collaboration between seven bourses in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, which runs exchanges in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

这一努力标志着，东盟在倡导创立所谓的东盟国家交易所(Asean Exchanges)方面迈出了第一步。东盟国家交易所将由印尼、马来西亚、菲律宾、新加坡、泰国和越南的7家交易所合作建立。越南在河内和胡志明市分别设有交易所。

The first phase of the project began four months ago with a three-way link between the Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean exchanges. That link uses an electronic “order routing system enabling brokers in each of the three countries more easily to connect their clients to trading on exchanges in other countries.

该项目的第一阶段始于4个月前，泰国、马来西亚和新加坡三方的交易所已经连接起来。三方的连接使用了电子化“指令路由系统，这使得其中任意一国的经纪商能够更加便捷地将客户的交易指令传递至另外两国的交易所。

The idea is to expand investment opportunities for citizens of each member country – some of which have savings rates among the highest in the world – and allow companies listed on the region’s bourses to tap into a wider pool of capital.

这一想法旨在增加成员国公民的投资机会，让在该地区上市的企业能够涉足更广阔的资本池。部分东盟国家的储蓄率位居全球前列。

Asean’s capital market regulators have agreed on a road map for integration of the region’s capital markets by 2015.

东盟资本市场监管机构已就一个路线图达成协议，到2015年时将实现该地区资本市场的一体化。

This would ultimately allow for the creation of Asean “as an investable asset class, according to the Singapore Exchange.

新加坡交易所表示，最终的目标是把东盟打造成“可投资的资产类别。

On the face of it, the idea of a pan-Asean exchange looks like a pipe dream.

乍看起来，泛东盟交易所似乎是个白日梦。

For years policymakers in Asean – which groups together 10 countries in southeast Asia – have talked up a grand vision of creating a borderless capital market where shares in blue-chips in one country can be bought and sold by an investor in another.

多年来，东盟的政策制定者一直在大力讨论创立一个无国界资本市场的宏大愿景。在这个市场上，一国的投资者能够买卖另一国的蓝筹股。

Yet no clear sign of investor appetite for it has been apparent so far. Corporate governance and listings standards vary widely across the region. It is home to the sophisticated market of Singapore and, at the other end of the scale, Vietnam, which is still seen as frontier territory.

但是，迄今尚无明确迹象显示投资者对此感兴趣。东盟各国的公司治理和上市标准差异很大。在这里，一方面有新加坡这样发达的市场，另一方面也有越南这样只是初具雏形的市常

In addition the biggest banks and brokers in the region already have the technology they need to allow seamless cross-border dealing on behalf of their clients.

另外要说的是，该地区的大银行和大经纪商早已拥有了代表客户进行无缝跨境交易的技术。

Nonetheless, there are reasons why the initiative’s time may have come.

不过，认为现在是时候提出这项倡议的想法也是有其道理的。

The emergence of southeast Asia as an economic power in its own right has increasing appeal to investors.

东南亚凭借自身条件崛起为一个强大的经济体，这一点对投资者构成越来越大的吸引力。

The region has a population of more than 600m and collective gross domestic product greater than Brazil or India.

该地区人口超过6亿，合计国内生产总值(GDP)超过巴西或印度。

It is also set to grow in importance as a manufacturing base as rising labour costs in China force companies to relocate.

随着中国劳动力成本上涨、企业被迫迁移，东南亚作为制造业基地的重要性将与日俱增。

Economists at Citibank say the region should benefit from a “demographic dividend as an emerging urban middle class in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines creates demand for telecoms, banking and aviation.

花旗银行(Citibank)经济学家表示，随着马来西亚、印尼和菲律宾的新兴城市中产阶级带来电信、银行和航空需求，该地区应该会获益于“人口红利。

Asean had too few big companies to justify talk of cross-border investing. But that has started to change.

东盟的大企业很少，因此谈不上什么跨境投资。但是，这种情况已开始改变。

Last year Boston Consulting Group picked 50 companies across the region that it called “Southeast Asia challengers. These were either expanding regionally or globally, and had annual sales of more than $500m.

去年，波士顿咨询集团(Boston Consulting Group)在该地区挑选出50家它称为“东南亚挑战者的企业。这些企业要么正在该地区扩张，要么正在全球扩张，年销售额均超过5亿美元。

While many of these companies were “known by industry insiders, the consultancy said that many of them were poised “to play leading roles on the global stage.

该咨询集团表示，上述很多企业“在业内广为人知，不仅如此，当中还有很多企业准备“在全球舞台上发挥领导作用。

Last year two of the world’s biggest initial public offerings came from Asean, including that of Felda, Malaysia’s second-largest palm oil producer.

去年，全球两宗最大型的首次公开发行(IPO)来自东盟，其中包括马来西亚第二大棕榈油生产商Felda的IPO。

FTSE, the index provider, had developed two indices that track the performance of some of the largest companies in Asean.

指数提供商富时(FTSE)开发了两个指数，用以追踪东盟某些最大型企业的表现。

Executives involved in the Asean Exchanges project acknowledge that it will take some time before trading takes off.

参与东盟国家交易所项目的高管承认，开始交易尚需时日。

That is not only because investors will have to be educated – hence the roadshows – but also because the legal and tax systems in each country have big differences.

这不仅是因为需要进行投资者教育（因此才有了上述路演），还因为各个国家的法律和税收体系迥然不同。

Ito Warsito, chief executive of the Indonesia Stock Exchange, says: “We inherited the legal system from the Dutch while Bursa Malaysia inherited theirs from the British. So we have to work on the issue of harmonisation.

印尼证交所(Indonesia Stock Exchange)伊托·瓦尔西托(Ito Warsito)表示：“我们继承了荷兰的法律体系，马来西亚证交所则继承了英国的法律体系。因此，我们得解决协调一致的问题。

Such harmonisation is a prerequisite for meeting the 2015 deadline set for the creation of an Asean capital market.

只有实现协调一致，才能在2015年的期限前创立一个东盟资本市常

Yet Mr Warsito and his counterparts say that the creation of Asean Exchanges will itself force Asean regulators to address harmonisation more urgently than if the exchanges had waited to build their regional market infrastructure.

然而，瓦尔西托及其他交易所的负责人表示，创立东盟国家交易所这件事本身将迫使东盟监管机构抓紧解决协调问题——假如相关交易所不积极建设地区市场基础设施，东盟监管机构就不会那么急迫地想去解决这个问题。

“We’re putting the boat in the water and starting to row, says Magnus B?cker, chief executive of the Singapore Exchange.

新加坡交易所首席执行官薄满乐(Magnus B?cker)表示：“我们的船已下水，开始向前航行。