ADB to establish 'Asian Bonds Online' website

Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to establish an "Asian Bonds Online" website to foster development of deeper and more mature bond markets in Asia through a grant approved for US$ 2.4 million, which would be launched in May 2004.
Sources disclosed this here on Wednesday. According to them, the grant comes from the Japan Fund for Information and Communication Technology (JFICT), financed by the Government of Japan.
The website would be a one-stop clearing house of information on sovereign and corporate bonds issued in the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus People's Republic of China, Japan, and Republic of Korea (ASEAN+3).
The website would provide information in three main areas: market activities, including bond issuance, trading activities, and market analyses and reviews; legal and regulatory frameworks, including the tax and bankruptcy laws, and institutional settings of bond markets; and government policies and initiatives, providing links and a forum for policymakers and market participants to exchange ideas.
The ADB's Regional Economic Monitoring Unit (REMU) would run the website, which was also responsible for the operations of the Asia Recovery Information Center, launched in 1999.
The grant would support development and operation of the new site up to the end of 2006.
"The website would not only prove valuable to existing investors and issuers, but also help attract new investors who have not invested in Asian bond markets because of the high cost of accessing the right information," they added.
According to them, the site would prove a catalyst in promoting bond market development in Asia. It would not only help increase transparency, liquidity and depth of the markets, but also lower funding costs for bond issuers and create greater cross-border flows. Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, development of bonds markets has become an important policy reform agenda item for many Asian governments.
There have been several recent initiatives to support bond market development in Asia, including the Asian Bond Fund established by the Executives' Meeting of the East Asia Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP), the regional bond market development initiatives of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation, and the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) of the ASEAN+3 group.
The website would be developed in close collaboration with key participants of Asian bond markets, concerned government agencies of the ASEAN+3 countries, and international and regional organisations, the sources added.