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Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-04-26Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] ASE head calls for common SE Europe bourse platform<!--ÔëòüìòñÞüìòAn appeal to southeast Europe stock exchanges for participation in the current Greece-Cyprus stock exchange alliance "Oasis" was made Thursday by the president of the Athens Stock Exchange, Spyros Capralos, during his address at the 11th Economist Government Roundtable in Athens. Capralos, who is also vice-president of the Federation of the European Securities Exchanges, stressed that stock exchanges adopting the specific common platform will share infrastructure with the Greek and Cypriot markets, and will, without cost, have much greater access to international liquidity.He also referred to a greater opening of markets for regional products in tandem with maintaining operational independence and reduced operational costs."Our vision is to create a single capital market in the wider Southeast European market, which will maintain the characteristics of an emerging market. The size of this market will help attract part of liquidity directed towards emerging markets," Capralos said, adding that financial markets have experienced significant structural changes over the last decades primarily because of a technology boom and continuing effort by investors for more transparency, better prices, lower costs and equal opportunities for all.Stock markets will face increased competition, Kapralos said, adding that this could lead to more consolidation in the industry with the aim to cut costs through scale economies and raising the number of their products and services.In again referring to the successful cooperation between the Greek and Cypriot stock markets through the common platform, Capralos noted that the Athens Stock Exchange has already expressed interest to forge a cooperation with the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, including the purchase of a 44-pct equity stake expected to be offered to investors.Other markets have also expressed interest in buying this stake (OMX and the stock markets of Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic), while other smaller markets in the region were seeking alliances (such as the Slovenian market). Caption: ASE President Spyros Capralos during his address at the Economist conference on Thursday, April 26, 2007. ANA-MPA / I. ANAGNOSTOPOULOS.--> [02] Greek, Bulgarian defence ministers meetGreece and Bulgaria are close to signing two new cooperation memorandums, Greek Defence Minister Evangelos Meimarakis and his Bulgarian counterpart Vesselin Bliznakov announced after their meeting in Athens on Thursday.The first memorandum is for cooperation between the hydrographic services of the armed forces of the two countries. The second is concerned with cooperation between the air forces of the two countries and aims at better control of air borders within the framework of NATO in order to deal with terrorism. In their statements, the two ministers reaffirmed the excellent climate of cooperation between Greece and Bulgaria in defence technology, and said they intended to develop this further. Also discussed during the meeting was the security situation in the region, with Meimarakis and Bliznakov agreeing on the need to establish a climate of security for economic growth and democracy in the region. Referring to Kosovo, Meimarakis reiterated Greece's support for finding a viable and functional solution with a long-term horizon, while he stressed the importance of having a multi-ethnic military force in the region to ensure a smooth transition into any new status, whenever this was agreed, as well as the EU's planned political operation after the new status was established in order to reinforce the rule of law. Bliznakov, who thanked Athens for its support of Bulgaria's effort to join EuroAtlantic structures, was later received by President of the Hellenic Republic Karolos Papoulias. Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Meimarakis. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |