Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa is today expected to unveil an initiative to help struggling East Asian governments raise cheaper sovereign debt.
It is understood the Japanese Government will offer to guarantee Asian sovereign bond issues, particularly to countries prepared to issue yen debt in Tokyo.
This would achieve the double goal of boosting international use of the yen and resuscitating Japan's yen-denominated 'samurai' debt market, Japanese finance ministry officials said.
It would also do great service to Asian countries needing to raise funds to finance budget deficits need to stimulate their economies.
'The most important thing now is to bring together money for these countries - as much of it private as possible - from around the world, including Japan,' Mr Miyazawa said in Tokyo yesterday before flying to Malaysia for this weekend's summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum finance ministers in Langkawi.
'Speculative money is a problem, but it would be good if there were a sizeable amount of money for investment and loans,' he said.
Japan's once-thriving samurai debt market has virtually dried up as a result of the regional financial crisis, having hit a volume of four trillion yen (about HK$254.78 billion) in 1996.
