Taiwan President Lai Ching-te used the opening of Taiwan Weeks on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to promote capital-market changes intended to attract global asset managers and channel funding to companies expanding beyond the island.
Lai set out three priorities: bring more international asset managers into Taiwan, revise the Taiwan Innovation Board’s listing and trading rules, and strengthen corporate governance and sustainability disclosures. The Presidential Office said the board changes are designed to help innovative firms reach capital markets at an earlier stage of growth.
Lai said industries expanding overseas need internationally competitive financial markets. He said the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) had adjusted more than 60 regulations and administrative orders over the previous two years. Assets under management across Taiwan’s financial sector totaled NT$48.38 trillion as of Sept. 30, according to Lai’s remarks.
Lai also said more than 280,000 people had opened Individual Savings Accounts. Tax incentives are planned to encourage long-term investing, he said.
FSC Chairman Peng Jin-lung said Taiwan’s market capitalization reached NT$158 trillion at the end of October, up about 61% from a year earlier. The increase in Taiwan’s market capitalization over the past year has been covered previously by EconoTimes.
More than 400 people attended the opening ceremony, the TWSE said. The FSC leads Taiwan Weeks, with the TWSE, Taipei Exchange, Taiwan Futures Exchange and Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation as co-organizers. The program features more than 45 forums and events through Nov. 13.
Nasdaq Executive Vice Chairman Edward Knight linked the role of financial markets to technology investment. “AI needs capital, and capital needs markets that can direct it quickly and transparently,” Knight said at the opening ceremony, Focus Taiwan/CNA reported.
Taiwan Weeks’ inaugural 2025 edition drew nearly 28,000 participants over nine days, including more than 1,200 institutional participants and more than 250 international investor representatives, according to the event site. This year’s schedule lists an Asian Asset Management Center Forum on Friday, Nov. 6, and a TiBOOST Innovation Growth Program on Tuesday, Nov. 10, intended to connect AI startups with international investors.
