Taiwan to transform capital market into Asian Nasdaq: President

Taipei, June 6 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Taiwan aims to transform its capital market into an Asian equivalent of the tech-heavy Nasdaq market so startups from around the world can raise funds in the country and seek opportunities to work with their Taiwanese counterparts.

In an interview with Taiwan Television (TTV) and Unique Satellite TV that aired Friday night, Lai said Taiwan has in recent years relaxed a large range of rules relating to the local capital market to live up to international fund-raising standards.

The relaxed rules address odd-lot trading, which allows purchases of fewer than the standard block of 1,000 shares and makes high-priced stocks more accessible, and day trading, which enables traders to buy and then sell or sell and then buy the same shares in a single session, according to Lai.

Taiwan, as a well-known technology island, has the most comprehensive AI ecosystem in the world, which serves as another advantage for the country as it seeks to attract foreign tech companies looking for funds, Lai added.

Currently, Taiwan is the fifth largest stock market in terms of market value in the world, sitting on massive liquidity, Lai said, and its sound AI supply chain is expected to make it more likely than South Korea, Japan, Singapore, China and Hong Kong to become an Asian Nasdaq and serve as a hub for foreign startups to seek funds.

Given the efforts being made to build an investment environment favorable to startups looking to raise capital in Taiwan, these tech firms also have a chance to cooperate with Taiwan's supply chain to develop and roll out products and test them in the market, Lai added.

With more and more foreign tech firms coming to Taiwan to raise funds, the local capital market will grow accordingly, Lai said, adding a stronger local capital market is in turn expected to help local small and medium-sized enterprises and even microbusinesses raise funds, through synergistic effects.

As such, efforts to establish an Asian Nasdaq market in Taiwan are necessary for the country to grow, according to Lai.

Taiwan is already protected by a silicon shield and its AI development is expected to enable more industries to become additional shields to protect the country, the president added.