Asia Pacific

Mizuho Securities Asia has made senior appointments to its fixed income and equity capital markets businesses in a bid to strengthen its operations in the region.

Samsung Biologics has sent out a request for proposals for an up to W3tr ($2.6bn) listing in South Korea, according to a source close to the situation.

The president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Jin Liqun, tells Emerging Markets that he expects strong demand for its debt and reveals that he is looking to invest in emerging economies across the world as well as in Asia.

Each percentage point slowdown in Chinese growth could crimp the Asia economy by 0.15%-0.3%, the IMF warned in its regional economic outlook as it urged policymakers to strengthen their structural reform agenda

The default by two state owned enterprises this year has stirred fears that the surge in China’s debt to 240% of GDP heralds further problems that could spill over into the offshore bond market with profound negative consequences

Issuers of consumer asset-backed securities look poised to take advantage of wobbles in the Chinese collateralised loan obligation market in the wake of high-profile defaults by state owned enterprises

The growth in bilateral trade deals poses a challenge to the relevance of World Trade Organisation and will have to be addressed soon to prevent fragmentation of the global system, leading experts warned at an AND seminar

Low income countries need help to combating tax avoidance and money laundering that is depriving them $1tr in lost revenue — dwarfing the amount their receive in official aid — Germany’s economic cooperation and development minister has warned

China’s fast-growing bond market could provider a major new source of corporate financing at a time when the banking sector is under strain, but some analysts are becoming concerned about the risk of a bubble building up

The president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Jin Liqun, tells Emerging Markets that he expects strong demand for its debt and reveals that he is looking to invest in emerging economies across the world as well as in Asia

Can a region have too many development banks? Probably not, given the huge amounts of money needed to tackle the many problems in the developing world. But the increasing number of MDBs operating in Asia means co-operation and co-ordination will be essential if the region is to maximise the benefit. This will be easier said than done, given the powers involved.

Financial, political and business setbacks in Asia this year have dented forecasts of the region’s hegemonic potential, but these problems look likely to be a blip in an otherwise relentless path towards economic dominance by China, India and their smaller neighbours.