The Korea Exchange said Wednesday it will make efforts to revitalize the sluggish stock market with more convenience for domestic and foreign investors.

“To attract more long-term investors to the market and contribute to the nation’s economy, we will also offer new and diverse global investment products to raise the dynamics of the stock market,” said Lim Jae-joon, president of the Kospi Market Committee, at a press conference.

Lim also pledged to invigorate its KIND regulatory filing system -- a reliable source of local firms’ daily disclosures -- in English for foreign investors. It will secure foreign investors’ demand and ease the “Korea Discount,” while the country’s stock market has been more undervalued recently.

“Many overseas investors have pointed out the lack of local firms’ disclosures. We will strengthen our support, such as providing a disclosure translation service, and modify the English disclosure form for Kospi-listed firms with high foreign investment proportion,” Lim said.

“We will select a translation firm to translate disclosures in real time. Beginning with those companies this year, we hope that many local firms will offer their disclosures in English,” he added.

Lim also vowed to welcome rising firms, whose high growth potential is overshadowed by other adverse factors for initial public offerings. New infrastructure sectors such as health care and clean energy will be encouraged to join the market.

The Kospi committee will come up with new quality examination guidelines, along with improving listing requisites for the firms, instead of mainly focusing on their past financial performance.

The chief of the Kospi committee also vowed to review constraint factors in securities taxes and make proposals on improvement, so that the government can attract more investors in the local stock market.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)