Strengthening the International Competitiveness of Capital Markets: Global Insights and Local Strategies

Global capital markets are undergoing a profound transformation. Over the past decade, there has been a marked decline in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in most advanced economies, including those with highly developed capital markets such as the United Kingdom and the United States. Interestingly, during the same period, countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and particularly China, have witnessed a significant increase in the number of listed companies, contributing to making Asia home to approximately 55% of all listed companies worldwide. The decline in IPO activity has prompted many countries and regions around the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, various Latin American countries and several jurisdictions in Asia and the Pacific such as Australia and Singapore, to embark on a range of efforts to revitalize their public equity markets. At the same time, regulators are assessing how to respond to the rapid growth of private markets, which is becoming one of the defining features of the evolving corporate financing landscape and certainly one of the primary drivers behind the decline of IPOs in many countries. Using Singapore as a case study, this article examines how countries can strengthen the international competitiveness of their public equity markets while navigating the risks and opportunities posed by the rise of private markets. Given that many of the challenges faced by Singapore are also present in other jurisdictions, this article ultimately seeks to contribute to the global debate on how countries should adapt to a new era of capital markets and corporate financing marked by increasingly blurred boundaries between public and private markets.