Restrictions on foreign investments have been removed in conjunction with government efforts to permit stock-broking companies to set their commission rates in line with market conditions and to remove barriers to entry in the securities industry by encouraging new entrants, both domestic and foreign, to undertake securities businesses. These deregulatory reforms have been designed to create competition by offering advantages to competitors and imposing disadvantages on incumbent firms in capital markets where government controls have long fostered oligopolistic market structures. They have also aimed to reduce the cost of capital and increase the pool of financial resources available to local industrial firms, broaden the investor base and make the domestic financial sector more efficient.