Asian Bond Markets Initiative

The Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) was launched in December 2002. Since then, efforts have been made under six Working Groups to create an enabling environment towards fostering the development of bond markets in the respective ASEAN+3 Member Countries.

During the AFMM+3 in Madrid, Spain on 4 May 2008, the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers endorsed the new ABMI Roadmap. The new Roadmap focuses on four key areas, namely:

Promoting issuance of local currency-denominated bonds;
Facilitating the demand of local currency-denominated bonds;
Improving the regulatory framework; and
Improving the related infrastructure for the bond markets.

Progress since 2002 has seen significant growth in the Asian local currency bond markets, which expanded more than 2.8 times in size together with an increase in the diversity of issuers.

According to the Asia Bond Monitor November 2008, published by ADB, the size of the market reached USD3.7 trillion at the end of the first half of 2008, up 8.1% from USD3.5 trillion outstanding at the end of 2007 and 20.7% from the end of June 2007.

Asian Bond Markets Initiative

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