Encik Ali Abdul Kadir, the Chairman of the Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia, who was speaking in his capacity as the Chairman of the APRC, said that in the era of globalisation, it is essential that regulatory co-operation is enhanced to foster regional economic development and maintain the confidence of market participants globally.

He also said that the APRC forum is an important platform to establish closer ties between market regulators of the region and to promote greater integration of the region's capital markets.

"With the advent of globalisation in financial markets, it is imperative that market regulators rise to the occasion to ensure that it has regulatory capacity to respond to the challenges of a rapidly evolving environment. Market regulators need to be well apprised of jurisdictional and international developments as well as the impact and interplay of a globalised market. Regulatory co-operation and possible integration are areas which need to be strengthened to maintain confidence of market participants where economic borders are fast diminishing," Encik Ali said.

Encik Ali was elected to chair the APRC of the IOSCO in May 2000. The APRC, one of the four regional committees of IOSCO, consists of 22 members from 19 jurisdictions namely Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia.

The SC has been a member of IOSCO since 1993 and held the chair of the IOSCO's Emerging Markets Committee (EMC) from 1996 to 1999. Additionally, since 1994 the SC has chaired the EMC's Working Group on Secondary Market Regulation. Over the past six years, the working group has studied and published reports on topics in relation to emerging markets, such as: the causes, effects and regulatory implications of the financial crisis in emerging markets; legal and regulatory frameworks for exchange-traded derivatives and for clearance and settlement; and financial risk management in emerging markets.

IOSCO is a world-wide forum for securities regulators that addresses issues and demands related to the regulation of securities and futures markets. IOSCO's ordinary membership consists of 97 national securities regulators. In addition, there are 58 affiliate members and seven associate members.