ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes present economic conditions in some important Asian countries considering their economic crisis and ongoing economic reforms. Many Asian countries are moving from labor-intensive manufacturing to capital-intensive industries, boosting companies’ debt financing needs, which require bond financing. Asian financial markets have fallen prey to nervousness at signs of sectoral weakness, caused in Thailand’s case by a severe property glut and in the case of South Korea by a collapse of profitability among the country’s large companies. The development of trading suggests that the liquidity base to the secondary market needs to be developed ahead of the primary market. Malaysia is the pioneer of a different model from Singapore; it is creating a derivatives-market denominated in its domestic currency and based on local instruments. The number of foreign banks entering offshore is limited and new access to the domestic market is confined to foreign banks with offshore licenses.
