Joint delegation visiting Taipei
A joint delegation by the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has concluded a visit to Taipei to explore ways to develop local capital markets in meetings with the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the TWSE Stock Exchange and other institutions.
The visit took place under the framework of the “SME Growth Market Project”, a joint initiative by ZSE and the EBRD and co-funded by the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation fund to promote the development and access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs are vital to the Croatian economy, yet access to finance remains challenging. In this situation, capital markets can provide an additional source of financing. The joint project is aiming to create a regional SME financing platform to set up an efficient and attractive instrument in compliance with the European Union’s (EU’s) Capital Market Union action plan.
The EU supports facilitating the access to finance for SMEs through its new “Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2” (MiFID2), which will enter into force in early 2018. The regulation will ease listing and reporting requirements for SME markets compared with the main markets. The ZSE intends to establish a trading platform that strikes the balance between listing requirements and adequate information that financial investors seek.
The cooperation with Taiwanese authorities and businesses not only provides the partners in the project with financial support, but Taiwanese experience can also offer valuable and important references for other countries.
Taiwanese donor support has contributed to the EBRD’s work since 1991. It is especially directed towards information technology areas of the knowledge economy, business advice to SMEs and the EBRD Women in Business programmes, as well as projects in sustainable resource management and intelligent transport systems.