Singapore, 17 May 2001 - The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is currently leading a delegation of government agencies and Singapore corporates to various major financial centres on a one-week international bond "roadshow" (this is a non-deal roadshow). This is the first time that the MAS is embarking on a focused exercise to meet international bond investors in London, New York, Boston and Tokyo in a bid to increase their participation in Singapore's bond markets.

2   The MAS said that given the significant progress and strong growth achieved by the Singapore debt market over the past three years, the time was right to spread the message that the Singapore bond market is a good investment alternative for international investors looking to diversify and add value to their bond portfolios.

3   "Our efforts to develop the local debt market in the past three years have paid off. We're now one of Asia's fastest growing bond markets. Singapore, with its sound fundamentals and AAA credit rating, also offers investors one of the strongest credits in the world. What remains is to ensure that Singapore's bond market gets on the radar screen of major international bond investors. We therefore need to directly communicate these recent positive developments to international bond market participants, as well as seek their views on our bond market. Their active participation in our markets will further add to market liquidity and help us maintain the fast growth momentum that we have built up in the last three years," said Ms Teo Swee Lian, Senior Executive Director (Financial Sector Promotion).

4   The delegation, led by Ms Teo and other senior MAS officials, also comprises representatives from PSA Corporation, Singapore Power, JTC Corporation, the Housing and Development Board (HDB), DBS Bank, United Overseas Bank (UOB), Overseas Union Bank (OUB), Capital Land and the Singapore Exchange (SGX), most of whom are active issuers of S$ bonds. Ms Teo said that while some corporates like PSA Corp, Singapore Power and DBS have already launched international US$ bond issues, this MAS-led roadshow would provide a valuable opportunity for the corporates to better understand the issues involved in tapping the international investor base. SGX was invited to participate in the roadshow as part of the efforts to introduce the soon-to-be-launched Singapore bond futures contract to the international investing community. The bond futures contract is targeted for launch sometime later this month.

5 The international bond roadshow comes after JP Morgan announced in April that the SGS market would be included in its World Government Bond Broad Index. This makes Singapore the only Asian country outside Japan to be included in the widely followed bond index. Last year, Singapore was also included in the Lehman's Global Aggregate Bond Index. The soon-to-be-launched 5-year Singapore Government Securities (SGS) bond futures contract will provide an additional hedging tool and trading opportunities for international bond players. These developments are expected to increase the appeal of the SGS market to international bond investors.