Will it work?

They have not succeeded after a decade, how can they do that now, I wonder? Remove the implicit stamp duty TAX on transactions would be a good start. Then work on corporate governance issues.

Malaysia's bourse said it's seeking to lure individual investors who have shunned the market a decade after the Asian financial crisis, and ways to keep politicians hands out of the stock market cash till.

Bursa Malaysia Bhd is working with brokerages and banks to "to reach out to retail investors in various towns and cities" to open up accounts and encourage online trading, chief executive officer Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur.

Trading by individuals fell to as low as 20 per cent of trading value from more than half before the start of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, when the benchmark index slumped by a record 52 per cent.

"A lot of retailers lost a substantial amount," Yusli said yesterday. The result is that the market is now "dominated by the local institutions," he said