Bangkok, 31 October 2019 - SEC was the chairman of the meeting with the member countries of the 7th Asia Investment Funds Passport (ARFP) in Singapore. On 21-22 October 2019, SEC revealed of the progress that four member countries are currently ready to accept the fund passport. They have reached an agreement that aims to raise awareness and expand this project further. In order to encourage investors, there are many investment products supporting economic development in the region.
SEC revealed that at the 7th ARFP Working Group meeting,
the progress of opening a funds passport was discussed. The member countries
that are ready to submit a request for approval for sale are Australia, Japan,
New Zealand and Thailand. As for South Korea, it is in the process of amending
the law to support the said issue. In addition, other countries interested in
the ARFP project which have sent representatives to observe are Singapore,
Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
However, after the ARFP project was officially
launched on 1 February 2019, the first cross-border IPO which was a mutual fund
from New Zealand has now been submitted.
Furthermore,
the meeting also reached an agreement on further implementing the project that
focus on making the ARFP project more widely known in the fund management
industry and looking for the opportunities increasing the number of member
countries in order to reach its full
potential in the project. In addition, the working group of the ARFP project
has developed a website for disclosing the important project information to business
operators, such as the ARFP Memorandum
of Cooperation and a guideline on summarizing the criteria relevant to member
countries where businesses are interested in offering mutual funds for sale (business
operators can learn more at https://fundspassport.apec.org/)
On 23 October
2019, the representatives of SEC and ARFP member countries met with over 300
persons from the investment management
companies and from life insurance companies of
Singapore and other countries in the region presented an overview of the industry and the process of submitting
the sale offer in each country, at the Industry Day Seminar organized by the Monetary Authority of
Singapore. At this event, a forum was held for business operators in Singapore in order to share their views on the
opportunities and benefits of the ARFP project on adding options for investors and also expanding business opportunities for
entrepreneurs in foreign markets.
ARFP is a cross-border offerings program under the
APEC framework ,which was officially launched in February. It has five-member
countries including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Thailand
with the objective of providing investors for a wider range of investment
products and appropriate protection. It has the capacity to raise potential, expertise,
and international competitiveness of the fund management industry as well as
support economic development in the region.
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