Asia's Debt Capital Markets: Prospects and Strategies for Development contains articles that share an important feature - an assessment of current and future prospects for developing debt capital markets in Asia. Some articles examine recent national or regionally sponsored actions to stimulate the development of these markets, while others provide specific proposals that are designed to expand such markets. The motivation for the articles is the fact that eight years of post-crisis discussion has not yet resulted in sufficient actions to broaden and deepen debt capital markets. Yet the role and value of such markets for economic growth and development is undisputed. The articles in this book make an important contribution in identifying obstacles to reform as well as in proposing ways to develop debt capital markets.

The book has three parts. Part I describes the characteristics and historical origins of these markets. Part II examines the contemporary bond markets and shows how they contribute to general welfare, describes the relationship between the banking sector and capital markets, and assesses prospects for reform in Asia's governmental and corporate debt markets. Part III explains the micro-level impediments and obstacles that must be the first targets of any reform efforts, provides an appraisal of attempts at regional cooperation to stimulate structural reform, and lastly contributes proposals to accelerate the growth and reach of bond markets throughout Asia.

Zusammenfassung
The Development of Effective Securities Markets Gary Schinasi International Monetary Fund One of the more important lessons of the crisis of the 1990s^not just the Asian Crisisis that the performance and structure of a country's financial system is an important fundamental factor for assessing that coimtry's overall economic performance and prospects, and as a destination for investment and asset returns. Market participants that are presently managing international portfolios now understand this very well. And as we all know, many countries are making strong efforts to reform their financial infrastructures, and move their financial systems more in the direction of a market-intermediated financial system and away from an exclusively bank-intermediated system. These reform efforts are putting in place some of the important infrastructure elements that are necessary for developing effective securities markets. However, emphasis should be placed on the word necessary: as many of these measures, and all of them taken together, are only necessary and not sufficient for estabUshing effective security markets.

Inhalt
Asia's Debt Capital Markets: Opportunities and Prospects.- Opportunities and Challenges in Asian Bond Markets.- Developing Asian Bond Markets Using Securitization and Credit Guarantees.- Contemporary Markets for Asian Debt Capital Market Instruments.- The Role of Reform.- Institutional Reform and Economic Development.- Reforming China's Bond Markets: Development prospects and the effects of corporate behavior.- Improving the Policy Environment for Private Sector Participation in the Development of Local Currency and Regional Bond Markets in APEC: Report of a financial sector survey.- Strategies for Development.- Essential Changes in National Law and Regulation: Impediments to cross-border investment in Asian bond markets.- Policy Concerns and the Value of Regional Markets.- Promoting Market Development with Structured Finance and Regional Credit Enhancement.- Building a Settlement Infrastructure for the Asian Bond Markets: Asiasettle.