The Chinese government has done extremely well in developing capital markets in recent years, Leo Melamed, father of financial futures, said Friday.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua at his office in downtown Chicago, Melamed said "for the cooperation between all futures and exchanges in China and CME group, we want to advance futures and exchanges into China just like that we succeeded in the CME in the United States."

Melamed is the chairman emeritus of the CME, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, and a long-time executive in the field of global derivatives.

Melamed, a honorable professor of Beijing University and adviser for some Chinese financial institutes, said he "would very much encourage the launch of stock index futures on the exchange in China."

He said that at this point of time, "the Chinese stock market and all the stock markets in the world have fallen substantially, and index futures market on an exchange such as the one created in China is a very important tool to help re-energize the stock markets."

He also expressed his willingness to help China develop capital markets, especially the stock index futures.

The CME under the leadership of Melamed launched currency futures and created the international Monetary Market (IMM) and introduced a number of financial instruments, including futures on U.S. treasury Bills and Eurodollars.

The CME also introduced the first stock index futures in 1982 when he was chairman.

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2009)