Capital Link Forum's Closed-End Country Funds and Global ETF Conference

Tuesday, April 9th, New York City - Capital Link Forum's Annual Closed-End Country Funds and Global ETF Conference took place today at the Pierre Hotel. Over 400 members of the investment community and financial press attended. The conference focused on the advantages of investing in Closed-End Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds with presentations by top fund managers and analysts from the industry.

Mr. A. Michael Lipper, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lipper Advisory Services, Inc. served as the head moderator of the event throughout the day. Mr. Lipper founded Lipper Analytical Services, Inc., an investment firm dedicated to the analysis of funds and brokerage firms, which he sold to the Reuters Group in 1998.

Analysts moderated various sectors based on coverage. Dr. Saumya Banerjee, Vice President, Closed-End Fund analyst at JP Morgan Securities gave an overview of the Latin and Asian Markets, with presentations by Roxolana Kuzmak, Vice President at Deutsche Bank Asset Management and portfolio manager of the Brazil Fund (NYSE- BZF). Ms. Lilia Clemente, CEO of Clemente Capital and Jake Hofilena, portfolio managers presented the investment opportunities in the Philippines and the First Philippine Fund (NYSE - FPF). The segment ended with John J. Lee, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank Asset Management presenting the Korea Fund.

Mr. Michael Smedley, president of Canadian General Investments made a presentation on the Canadian closed-end fund community. Under the category of specialized regional fund alternatives, Kun Deng, Director at Lazard Asset Management, presented on the World Trust Fund, listed on the London Stock Exchange (WTR).

On the topic of emerging market equity and fixed income opportunities, Paul Mazzilli, Director of ETF research at Morgan Stanley moderated and presented on the overall emerging markets overview and fund returns. Presentations were made by Eric Baurmeister, portfolio manager of Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund (NYSE- MSD) and Paul Psalia of Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Fund (NYSE- MSF). Also, Ms. Dina Khayat of Lazard Asset Management and portfolio manager of the Egypt Trust Fund, listed in London and Luxembourg, encouraged investors to "take another look" at Egypt.

Hanspeter Ackermann, President and Tom Gill, Vice President of Deutsche Bank Investment Management presented two funds they manage, The Central European Equity Fund (NYSE- CEE) and The New Germany Fund (NYSE- GF). They presented on the economic prosperity in Central Europe and the many opportunities in investing in Germany such as the tax advantages, German parliamentary elections and corporate restructuring.

Under the topic of alternate closed-end strategies, Pierre Daviron, member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Investment and Strategy Committee for The France Growth Fund (NYSE- FRF) presented alongside Eric Bleines, portfolio manager and Walter Clark, from Crédit Agricole Asset Management on the new proposed structure of the Fund to adapt to a pan-European multi-strategy approach. They made the case that the closed-end fund structure is well-suited for investments in alternatives.

Theodore Enders of Merrill Lynch Closed-End Fund Research, moderated and presented on growth oriented European country funds. The New Germany Fund and the New Ireland Fund are two funds that presented in this category. The New Ireland Fund (NYSE- IRL), managed by Bank of Ireland Asset Management was presented by Ciaran Spillane, Vice President, Client Services. Mr. Spillane presented the new enviroment in Ireland with a rapidly expanding labor force and an exposure to high growth industries.

The luncheon keynote speaker was David Hale, Global Chief Economist at Zurich Financial Services. Mr. Hale spoke on the domestic and global outlook. He focused on the strength of the U.S. economy, the European elections and moved into his outlook for East Asia and Africa. A special award was given to Michael T. Porter, formerly of Salomon Smith Barney for his contribution to the closed-end country funds over the years.

An afternoon panel consisting of Mr. Lipper, Paul Mazzilli, Saumya Banerjee and C. Michael Carty, Principal and Chief Investment Officer of New Millennium Advisors and Mr. K. Sean Clark, Chief Investment Officer of Clark Capital Management discussed the pros and cons of Closed-end Funds and ETFs. The US Closed-End Fund market has 487 funds with over $155 billion in assets and the US index-linked ETF market has 119 funds with over 90 billion in assets, as reported by Paul Mazzilli of Morgan Stanley.

Separate panels focused on the outlook and advantages of ETFs and Indexing as an Alternative. The presentations were made by Ms. Feng Ding, Senior Portfolio Manager and Mr. Binu George at Barclays Global Investors on their international iShares products and the efficiency of indexing, respectively. Moderators included Mr. Liam O'Neil, Director of Index Products at Merrill Lynch Global Equity-Linked Products.

Mr. Josh Wingerd of the Vanguard Group presented their VIPERs products and the cost advantages of these products over others. Fortune Indexes products were presented by the General Manager, Mr. Matthew J. Wooldridge and Mr. Herbert D. Blank, President of QED International Associates closed the event with an in-depth look at why indexes are created, how indexes will be created in the future, benefits and pros and cons of market weightings.

Other presenters included Daniel Curran, Member of Turning Point Securities on the specialist's role in trading ETFs, Lawrence G. Larkin, Senior Vice President of ETF Marketplace at the American Stock Exchange, and Tom Jardine, Managing Director of ETFs at Deutsche Bank.

Based on the great success of the event, Capital Link will make this an annual conference. Capital Link, Inc. is an international investor relations firm which among other focuses on the closed end country funds and the ETF industry. Capital Link has four main activities ; the full range of investor relations and financial advisory services, an extensive range of web based IR solutions for listed companies, the operation of investment portals for select European markets and the organization of investment conferences and roadshows through Capital Link Forum.

Please view this event by webcast at www.capitallinkforum.com available as of Wednesday, April 10th in its entirety.