ADX Chief Executive Tom Healey said regulations relating to ETFs -- funds listed on stock exchanges that offer investors exposure in underlying shares or other assets -- are being finalised, paving the way for their listing.

‘The best way to attract international companies to list on ADX is through ETFs. Foreign companies can then tap the pool of available capital here,’ Healey told reporters.

‘We are in advanced talks with companies in Japan, Taiwan and Pakistan to list ETFs here,’ he said without giving details.

The Taiwan stock exchange said last month that Polaris Securities could launch the first ETF on the exchange as early as June.

The ADX also plans to list domestic ETFs, Healey said on Sunday, and is encouraging local financial firms to launch the products.

Last week, the exchange changed its name from the Abu Dhabi Securities Market as part of its rebranding initiative. That came just a few weeks after the ADX launched a series of roadshows in Singapore and Tokyo last month in a bid to attract foreign investment. It had similar roadshows in London and New York in June last year.

Healey said on Sunday the exchange plans to do another roadshow in London this year.

Foreign investments from outside the Middle East in the Abu Dhabi bourse reached 3.1 billion dirhams ($844 million) in 2006, the acting director-general Rashed Al Baloushi said last year.

The benchmark, the second-best performer in the Gulf Arab region last year, is up 11.04 percent this year.