The Hong Kong Futures Exchange (HKFE) announced today that Mr. Gao Xi Qing has been appointed to its Board of Directors. He will also serve on the HKFE's Finance Committee and its Global Development Committee.

Mr. Gao is currently Deputy Chief Executive of the Bank of China's (BOC) Hong Kong-Macau Regional Office and CEO of BOC International Holdings Ltd., the BOC's global investment banking arm. He also serves as an arbitrator for Hong Kong's International Arbitration Centre, Beijing's China International Economic & Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and arbitration organisations in the United States and Sweden.

Before joining the BOC, Mr. Gao was a professor at the Law School of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing, where he received a Master of Laws degree in 1981. He also has a Juris Doctor degree from Duke University Law School in the U.S. and practised law in the U.S. with a Wall Street firm from 1986 to 1988.

After returning to China, Mr.Gao played an active role in the establishment of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges as well as the Securities Trading Automated Quotation system (STAQ). He was also a founding member of the China Securities and Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and served as its General Counsel and Director of Public Offerings from 1992 to 1995.

Mr. Gao, who was born in Xi'an, is a member of the CIETAC Advisory Committee, the Academic Committee of the China Securities Institute, the Chinese Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association.

The Hong Kong Futures Exchange is a leading futures and options marketplace in the Asia Pacific Region, with a membership of over 130 companies, including a number of major international institutions. The Exchange is actively diversifying its product base, which now includes currency, interest rate and equity-based products.

For further enquiries, please contact HKFE Corporate Communications Manager Miss Chiu Yeung on 2842 9322.