MADRID, Spain—The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Plus Three has announced it has drafted a new Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) Road Map to reflect its renewed strong committment on the ABMI on its fifth anniversary.

The ABMI aims to develop efficient and liquid bond markets in Asia, enabling better utilization of Asian savings for Asian investments.

In a briefing after its 11th meeting here on Sunday, the Asean+3 (Asean plus China, Japan, Republic of Korea) said the new road map now has four key areas which will be left to the charge of four task forces and monitored by the Asean’s steering group.

The four key areas are promoting the issuance of local currency-denominated bonds, facilitating the demand of local currency-denominated bonds, improving regulatory framework and improving related infrastructure for the bond markets.

The Asean+3 also agreed to make voluntary efforts to contribute to the regional bond market accessible in a “concerted manner.”

“In this regard, each country will make periodic self-assessments of its progress in line with the objectives of the ABMI. The reference will be introduced for this purpose,” the Asean+3 said in a statement.

The group also recognized the role of the private sector in developing the bond markets. It welcomed the launch of a group consisting of private-sector participants to discuss cross-border bond transaction and settlement issues.

Due to the underdevelopment of capital markets, Asian countries have depended on short-term foreign currency-denominated financing. This causes “maturity” and “currency” mismatches, making the region vulnerable to volatility in short-term capital movements.

These risks were brought to the surface by the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98. Developing bond markets in the region is considered a very effective way to solve such problems and to significantly reduce “currency” and “maturity” mismatches in regional financing.

At the 6th Asean+3 Finance Ministers’ Meeting in August 2003 in Manila, finance ministers agreed to promote the ABMI.

The financial ministers will again meet in Bali, Indonesia, next year for their 12th meeting. The cochairs for 2009 will be Thailand and Korea. This year, the cochairs were Vietnam and Japan.

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MADRID, Spain—The Philippine government has expressed its support for the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Long Term Strategic Framework (LTSF) 2008 to 2020, or Strategy 2020, amid criticism of the bank’s lending priorities.

MADRID, Spain—The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Plus Three has announced it has drafted a new Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) Road Map to reflect its renewed strong committment on the ABMI on its fifth anniversary.