Coalition promises to focus on capital markets, postpone farmland sales

The coalition agreement signed yesterday makes explicit commitments to develop “liquid, transparent and reliable” capital markets. It promises global principles of corporate governance, better protection for minority investors, and quicker development of domestic investment funds and private pension funds. It even goes into detail about all the laws the coalition should adopt. The agreement also included a commitment to delay the introduction of trading in farmland by another year, until 1 January 2008. Concorde Capital: We’re of course very pleased that the government has so clearly made capital markets a priority, which is long overdue. We’ll be following the coalition’s progress closely. The postponement of farmland sales was a key demand of the Socialists, who had sought a longer delay. A huge amount of the country’s natural wealth is locked up in non-tradable farmland.