Chen to meet investment bankers

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is scheduled to meet the top executives of foreign investment banks and brokerages in Taipei today, according to officials at the Presidential Office.

Invitations for a tea party at 3pm at the Presidential Office were sent to banks including Morgan Stanley & Co, Goldman Sachs Group, UBS AG, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Merrill Lynch & Co, Deutsche Bank AG, the officials said, without elaborating.

At the closed-door meeting, Chen will be accompanied by the nation's top economic and financial officials to exchange views with his guests on the development of the nation's capital markets and investment environment.

Chen may also take the opportunity to reach out personally to persuade overseas investors to invest in Taiwan, according to local Chinese-language news media.

Foreign investors have been net sellers for 19 straight sessions since April 27 on concerns of a rise in US interest rates and rising oil prices, unloading a net US$3.8 billion in Taiwanese stocks, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The benchmark TAIEX dropped to a nine-month low of 5,482.96 on May 17 amid heavy selling by foreign investors following a statement from China that Chen must accept Chinese sovereignty or ``face destruction by playing with fire.''

In a bid to help reverse their selling, the Ministry of Finance announced on May 18 it was relaxing restrictions on foreign investments in the nation's stock market.

The changes will allow foreign-investor trading in the futures markets and give them permission to buy "call" options and sell "put" options. In addition, they would no longer need approval from the central bank's foreign exchange department for investment in the domestic stock market, the ministry said.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun ordered the measures to take effect within two months.

Apart from cross-strait tensions, topics for today's meeting may also include the possible impact of China's measures to cool its overheating economy and expected changes to Taiwan's status in Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc's indices, the Central News Agency (CNA) said.

Central Bank of China Governor Perng Fan-nan (彭淮南), Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全), Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) and Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正) are expected to accompany Chen at the meeting, CNA reported.

Bankers invited to the Presidential Office include Susan Lin (林水仙), chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley, Francis Yu (於貽勳), managing director of UBS Securities Ltd in Taiwan (瑞銀證券), Sung Hsueh (宋學仁), vice chairman of investment banking for Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Carl Chien (錢國維), senior country officer for JPMorgan Chase Bank in Taiwan, and Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗), chairman of Citigroup Global Markets Taiwan Ltd.