The system, which will facilitate bond trading separately from off-exchange trading, is being developed by Freewill Solutions and will become operational by end 2005.

BEX Chief Executive Officer Mr. Santi Kiranand Ph. D. announced that the BEX is currently developing an electronic trading platform. The project has been undertaken as part of Thailand's Bond Market Development Plan Phase II, which stipulates that the BEX will provide the country's central electronic trading platform (ETP), called "Firsts" (Fixed Income and Related Securities Trading System).

"The development of the ETP will make the BEX an efficient center for bond trading, since there will be the trading system, settlement and clearing services, transparent disclosure and efficient communication channels in place. The dominant feature of the "Firsts" is that it'll enable market participants to gain real-time trading information, hence be able to make more efficient investment decisions. This will be one of our major developments as we extend our services to include both retail and institutional investors," said Dr. Santi.

Freewill Solution Co. Ltd. developed Firsts, while the BEX has mandated SETTRADE.Com Co. Ltd. to maintain and market the system.

Dr. Santi ended, "Firsts will reduce transactions costs of institutional investors. It is a real-time trading system for institutional investors and bond dealers, enabling clients to trade and negotiate bonds more conveniently, quickly and transparently. As a result, we expect that institutions will trade more on the BEX and hence increase overall turnover in the secondary market. The "Firsts" is expected to be up and running by end-2005."