(Yicai Global) Oct. 21 -- The financial markets of China and Thailand could collaborate more to link up investors and companies, according to the president of the Southeast Asian nation's stock exchange.

Cooperation between the two countries offers huge opportunities, Pakorn Peetathawatchai, president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said to Yicai Global in an exclusive interview. Evidently, several Chinese companies' shares have been listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand this year and Thai companies are receiving more investments from China.

YG: Foreign investors were net buyers of Thai shares in the first eight months of this year. Has foreign investors' confidence fully recovered? And what is the situation of Chinese investment？

Dr. Pakorn: Our export and manufacturing industries have recovered very well after the Covid-19 pandemic. And revenues and profits have been even higher than before Covid in those two sectors.

When you look at infrastructure investments in Thailand during the past few years, you will notice that a new expressway, a new sky train, and new mass transportation links have been built, not just in Bangkok but all over the country. We certainly believe that this promotes new investments in other sectors.

That is why we start to see a lot of foreign investment coming back. We hope that we can see more collaboration and more investment from China because when you look at Thailand; Thailand is a hub of many industries, vehicle manufacturing, and others. I hope that very soon we will see a lot more participation from NEV production in Thailand from China. China is the leader in this industry.

YG: Are there any measurements you may consider to further attract foreign companies to participate in the Thai capital market?

Dr. Pakorn: When you look at our capital market, there are two points that we can improve on. The first one is how we can get more funding for small and medium-sized companies. And the second thing is how we can attract foreign companies to raise funds in Thailand. Those are the two things that we have been working on very hard to get interest from foreign companies. At the moment, what we are trying to do is we are promoting five types of foreign listings.

The first type would be a primary listing. The second would be a cross-listing or a secondary listing. The third thing would be a holding company listing. The fourth one would be an infrastructure trust. And the last thing would be a real estate investment trust. Those are the things that we try to promote to get interest from foreign businesses.

YG: Have you considered building a stock connect program with China？

Dr. Pakorn: Actually, we have been discussing it with the Chinese counterparty for quite some time but I think the idea would be that they would like to link up Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen first. Certainly, we would go back and discuss that with the Chinese counterparty. We are open to that.

YG: The SET signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2019 to strengthen capital market cooperation. What is the progress regarding this MoU?

Dr. Pakorn: We have been doing a roadshow to foster collaboration with Shenzhen and we did a virtual roadshow a few times already. At the moment, we have been working with Shenzhen five times to work out how can we connect listed Thai companies with Chinese institutional investors.

The latest one was on renewable energy. We were working with the SSE in September. That was the fifth time that we hosted an investment event together. We had an executive from a listed Thai company, sharing information about how Thai businesses have been using renewable energy and transforming toward green business models. And that event attracted over 120 institutional and individual investors from China. These are the things that we have been working on with Shenzhen and certainly, we would like to do more.

YG: Are there other opportunities to deepen connectivity between the Chinese and Thai financial markets？

Dr. Pakorn: It's gonna be a huge opportunity for both sides. For example, for Thai investors to be able to invest in Chinese companies that are very good in so many industries nowadays. We would like to certainly open up more channels for that. On the other hand, certainly, we would like to have Thailand as a partner in manufacturing and other things with China in producing a new S-curve economy so that Thailand will become part of the Chinese industrial supply chain.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi