The Russian securities regulator will sign a memorandum with China Securities Regulatory Commission in the future, said its chairman who was on a visit to Shanghai Wednesday.

"I am here mainly to learn how the stock exchange works," said Igor Kostikov, chairman of the Federal Commission for the Securities Market of the Russian Federation, a regulatory body that is equivalent to the CSRC and the US's Securities & Exchange Commission.

The chairman, who declined to reveal the details of the memorandum, paid a visit to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday to exchange views.

Kostikov was appointed as head of the Russian securities regulator in February 2000 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since he took up the job, stringent laws and codes have been implemented to ensure the order and discipline are maintained in an emerging stock market that started in 1990.

Kostikov said foreign investors make up nearly 50 percent of the trading in Russia's stock market, whose total market capitalization accounted for 47 percent of the country's GDP as of June 30.

"The securities regulator should be tough to protect the rights of the small investors," said Kostikov.

(Shanghai Daily September 11, 2003)