David Cooksey, chairman of European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, delivered a keynote speech at the 8th China Venture Capital Forum that opened on April 7 in Shenzhen, a boomtown in South China's Guangdong Province.

In his speech, Mr Cooksey shared the successful experience of venture capital (VC) development in the European countries with participants.

He said private equity (PE) is aimed to restructuring and revitalizing existing companies and making them more innovative and more competitive, while VC, in its early stage, is to bring new technology to market.

In the past few years, PE/VC developed quickly in European countries. For PE alone, in 2004 the funds raised totaled 27.5 billion pounds and in 2005 the figure was 59.5 billion pounds. Investment and divestments are growing too, with the funds raised in 2004 being 27.5 billion pounds and investments totaling 36.9 billion pounds, according to Mr Cooksey.

He said the framework for the success is to have a legal structure, establish financial reporting standards and sufficiently protect intellectual property rights. Corporate governance is vital to secure long-term institutional investment in private equity (PE) and VC and rapid growth of the VC industry requires responsibility, he added.

Mr Cooksey also highlighted the agenda for success of PE/VC in the speech. He said, the most important factor to ensure success is the confidence of investors, in which a transparent and reliable reporting system is essential. And, what comes next is the support of government policy makers, who should demonstrate the benefit of PE/VC, as well as its success to employment, the economy and the community.

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