Linking Asia's Capital Markets

Sponsored by Standard and Poor's

3 May 2010 (12:00 pm - 1:30 pm)

Capital markets across Asia have grown rapidly over the past 10 years through market liberalization, concerted efforts to develop national capital markets and financial globalization. But these are still small relative to the economies they serve and also fragmented. While many national markets are integrated with global capital markets, Asia's national markets are increasingly seeking to link themselves with each other with a view to retaining a larger proportion of Asia's savings within the region for investment, as well as helping the region become more resilient to external shocks.

This will require further deepening of capital markets, harmonizing the varying standards and rules, and promoting more efficient markets. Deepening Asia's capital markets and strengthening regional economic integration are key priorities for Asia. While global capital markets have become increasingly accessible to Asian issuers, they can never be a substitute for deeper local and regional markets which are critical to the process of efficiently allocating resources and risks to the region's economies. Retaining Asia's huge savings for investment in the region's projects, providing much needed alternative sources of finance to the wide range of Asian issuers, strengthening intra-region capital flows and increasing resilience to global shocks will only be possible through stronger linkages between Asia's capital markets.

Standard & Poor's has worked on a number of initiatives in Asia and Europe on strengthening integration of capital markets. At the seminar we will share our experience in Asia and Europe in the integration of global and regional capital markets. We will also discuss the imperatives for linking Asia's capital markets with each other.

PROGRAM/SPEAKERS

William Hess
Director, Sovereign Ratings (Asia

Tom Schiller
Executive Managing Director, Asia-Pacific

Jean-Michel Six
Managing Director, Chief Economist (Europe)

Lorraine Tan
Vice President and Director of Equity Research, Asia-Pacific

Note: All times are in GMT+05. For inquiries, e-mail: annualmeeting@adb.org