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The Slovak government faces a problem that every government in the region has had to overcome, or will have to - finding a way to finance the budget deficit cheaply, while still developing the domestic bond market.

Now is a good time to raise international awareness of the development of Slovenia's local securities market," claims Stanislava Zadravec, state undersecretary for public debt management.

Over the next decade, the EU expects to welcome at least 10 former Communist countries as new member states. So far, the transition of the EU applicants to market economies has been far from uniform. Laurence Knight reviews governments' progress in developing domestic bond markets, their efforts to diversify the investor base, and how banks are importing capital market expertise

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The Bulgarian government has in the last year made serious efforts to develop the country's debt capital markets. For starters, in 2000 it succeeded in extending its yield curve out first to three years and then to five. It plans to take the curve out to 10 years in the near future.

Australia The Australian debt market was subdued following the news of the terrorist attack, in sympathy with global markets. Trading yesterday (Thursday) was mostly restricted to government debt and a small amount of corporate trading, while the primary market was inactive.

Hong Kong Despite news reports to the contrary, bankers in Hong Kong believe that premarketing for Standard Chartered's planned Hong Kong listing and simultaneous £500m equivalent new share issue will proceed on schedule, although lead manager Goldman Sachs was not available for comment. Cazenove is joint lead manager.

All asset backed deals that were set to be launched in Australia this week have been put on hold following the events in the US. However, two deals did get priced earlier this week before the crisis. The $1.2bn global deal by Macquarie Securitisation Ltd has been postponed, while Adelaide Bank has also withdrawn its A$600m RMBS, which it first announced on Monday, from marketing.

As capital market participants based in Asia Pacific absorb the impact of the week's news, the consensus is that while uncertainty prevails, the equity new issues market will remain quiet. However, deals can be completed, as Macquarie Bank proved with its new share issue in the aftermath of Tuesday's carnage in New York. Macquarie Bank, the only listed investment bank in Australia, raised A$500m in an overnight bookbuild that began after close of trading Sydney time on Tuesday, shortly before the terrorist onslaught in the US.

Dollar denominated Latin bonds lost two to three points yesterday (Thursday) as a shell-shocked market grappled with the devastation at some of the biggest broker-dealer firms making markets in Latin bonds, which were housed in the World Trade Centre. Only Chilean corporate Celulosa Arauco managed to raise funds during a week that had been expected to provide a healthy flow of Latin bonds. Arauco's $400m 7.75% 10 year investment grade deal, which was priced on Monday, was a blowout, as expected. The deal, led by JP Morgan, was increased from $300m and priced at a spread of 295bp over Treasuries, the tight end of the 300bp area guidance.