Achievements under the Previous ABMI: Since the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers endorsed the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) in 2003, the local currency (LCY) denominated bond markets in the region have achieved remarkable growth in terms of size and diversity of issuers, growing by an average of around 30% per year (USD base) from 1997 to 2008. In 2008, LCY bond markets grew at a slower rate of 8%, which reflected the onset of the current economic downturn in emerging East Asia. Significant issues of LCY-denominated bonds have been made by governments, central banks and monetary authorities, locally-based corporations, international financial institutions, and multinational corporations. In addition, ASEAN+3 countries have made significant progress on their own reform efforts, ranging from unifying issuing authorities for government bonds and simplifying corporate bond issuance procedures for securitization to removing barriers for bond issuance by domestic and foreign entities.

On the fifth anniversary of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI), the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers’ Meeting in May 2008 agreed on a new roadmap for future work to be undertaken under the ABMI. The objectives of the new roadmap are to encourage efforts of individual countries to further develop their own LCY bond markets; and through the efforts of individual countries and the ASEAN+3 countries as a group, seek to develop a regional bond market that is more accessible for both issuers and investors. Additionally, the new ABMI roadmap identifies areas where institution building is necessary and beneficial, and makes contributions toward the development of these new institutions. A Steering Group has been formed to ensure effectiveness and efficiency under the new ABMI framework.

Four different task forces have been established to implement specific aspects of the new ABMI Roadmap, with each task force co-chaired by two members of ASEAN+3. These four task forces include: