Taiwan's stock exchange, a recent star performer benefiting from the prospect of Chinese investment, is looking to play a more active role in the region and compete with Hong Kong's bourse for listings.

“Hong Kong played a big role [in Asia's capital markets] in the past because cross-strait relations were poor, but now it is all coming back,” Chi Schive, chairman of the Taiwan stock exchange, told the Financial Times. In spite of having a recessionary economy and slumping exports, Taiwan's stock market has been one of Asia's best performers this year with a 40 per cent rise since the beginning of the year.

Breakthroughs in Taiwan's relationship with China earlier this month – including a proposal by China Mobile to buy a 12 per cent stake in Taiwan's Far EasTone – helped drive the benchmark Taiex index up by 15 per cent in the last two weeks.