The ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers’ Meeting (AFMM+3) on 15 May 2004 in Jeju, Korea confirmed the establishment of a Focal Group (FG) to coordinate the work of ABMI working groups. The first FG meeting was held on 19 March 2004 Manila, Philippines, and since then FG meeting has been held biannually.

The immediate focus of the FG is to monitor the progress of the ABMI working groups and to coordinate their future action plans. This includes:

• Drafting of a summary progress report of the ABMI to be submitted to the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers' or Deputies' meeting;
• Providing a progress update for each working group;
• Coordinating meeting schedules of the working groups;
• Sharing future plans of the working groups.

The Terms of Reference of the FG is provided at the link below.

In March 2005, the Focal Group made two new proposals, namely (i) the ABMI Roadmap and (ii) Asian Bond Standards, which are also linked below. These proposals were endorsed at the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers’ Meeting (AFMM+3) in May 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey. The ABMI Roadmap proposes an integrated effort of gathering and sharing information on bond market development and on related efforts with the regular self-assessment to be conducted by member countries. The possible issuance of Asian currency-basket bonds would be also explored. Meanwhile, the AFMM+3 also agreed to embark on a study of Asian Bond Standards to explore the development of international bond markets in Asia through tailoring necessary infrastructure and setting the procedure entrusted by global issuers and investors.