Asean+3 to create infra bond markets

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus Japan, China and South Korea (Asean+3) are looking into ways of developing a local currency bond market that would use the countries’ “large pool” of savings to help finance the infrastructure requirements in the region.

At the Asean+3 20th meeting held recently in Japan the group sought to address the risks that led to the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis and avoid such risks by strengthening their financial systems’ resilience against volatile global capital flows and external shocks.