Regional financial data base endorsed

Regional financial data base endorsed

MANILA (AFP): Asian corporate regulators meeting in the Philippines yesterday endorsed the creation of a million-dollar, computer-linked regional financial data base to enhance investment in the world's fastest growing region.

Rosita Chang, director of the PACAP Research Center of the US University of Rhode Island, which organized an ongoing Pacific Basin capital markets conference here, said the data base should be available in fact book form next year and the computerized version operational by 1997.

The database would enable investors to gain quick access to information on Asian companies, she told AFP. The idea was conceptualized three years ago and data from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have since been compiled, she added.

The project would cost one million dollars and contain historical data beginning in 1975 on company files, exchange rates, and other relevant data, which would be updated either quarterly or daily, she said.

Stock exchanges, central banks, and large financial institutions would be asked to contribute, she added.

"It's very important for fund managers to really have a good data base which they can compare from country to country," Chang said.

"It would be beneficial to enhance cross-border investments because right now it is very difficult for American fund managers to really understand the financial statements that they are getting from these countries individually."

Azzad Kamaludin, commissioner of Malaysia's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said the data base "would definitely help in cross border listings" and would "generate investor interest."

Chang however said Asian regulators still needed to agree on uniform accounting procedures and uniform definitions of terms such as profits, depreciation, total costs, revenues, and cost projections, among other terms.

"It's difficult because we really have to sit down together and have a meeting in order to discuss this proposal," said Rosario Lopez, head of the Philippines' SEC.