With Asian countries holding a massive 1.5 trillion dollars' worth in foreign exchange reserves or more than half of the world's total, moves to grow the bond market are long overdue, they said.

"I think the willingness of the finance ministers, particularly in Korea, China and Japan, in wanting to engage with the rest of Asia in looking at bond market development ... is quite positive in moving forward," said Wong Sau Ngan, head of policy review at Malaysia's Securities Commission.

"There is some reckoning that we need to recycle the reserves here. We have that capability."

Wong, who attended the recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual conference in South Korea, said there was a growing sense among the region's financial policy makers of the critical need to have a deep bond market.

"I have to say that my cynicism was somewhat tempered by what I personally have seen," Wong said.

"(There is) an enormous and strong commitment on the part of the finance ministers of ASEAN plus three (China, Japan and South Korea) in fostering ... at least moving forward in fostering the development of the regional bond market."

Developing regional bond markets was one of the main topics during last week's ADB meeting held at South Korea's Jeju resort island.

East Asian finance ministers launched a website that would serve as a one-stop clearinghouse for information on regional bond issues in a bid to draw foreign interest.

Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki also said during the ADB meeting that his country was committed to playing a leading role in the Asian Bond Markets Initiative, which aims to develop efficient and liquid markets.

The development of a flourishing bond market, which gives governments and large firms alternative ways to raise funds for their capital needs, gained attention after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

Financial experts said the crisis exposed the region's huge dependence on short-term loans from banks to finance huge projects.

One way to prevent a repeat of the crisis is to develop a bond market which allows governments and firms to tap into the region's massive pool of savings by issuing securities with maturities of as long as 30 years.