One of the problems in Asian countries is that the countries are too dependent on short-term foreign currency borrowing which is dangerous for the nations, Jeremy Amias, managing director and head of Asia Pacific Fixed Income, Currencies and commodities of Citigroup, said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star in Dhaka yesterday.

"Development of a domestic bond market should be the priority of a country and a proper domestic bond market can speed up financial system of a country like Bangladesh. Along with a strong economic growth Bangladesh has a good size of young and well-educated population. However, Bangladesh needs to do little bit more to attract international investor community." he said.

"As I am professionally experienced with fixed income, I expect a larger bond market and mechanism for issuing more corporate bonds in the market," Amias said, adding that Citigroup wants to help Bangladesh develop a proper domestic bond market which will be driven by the domestic investors and organisations.

Terming the country's stock market very small and existing bond market very tiny, Amias said the government should issue more bonds. In Vietnam, the bond market is worth about five billion dollars while the Bangladesh's existing bond market is about one billion dollar, he added.

Amias said he would like to see the country's capital market more matured and liquid. "I would also like to see more companies go to the country's capital market through initial public offering (IPO)."

He also stressed the size of the offerings to ensure participation from large funds.

Amias is also in favour of foreign investment in the domestic bond market. Like China and India, Bangladeshi rules do not also allow foreign investment in domestic bond market. But, he said, the country should follow more open systems, which will bring benefit for the country in the long-term.

Amias' views were echoed by Ifty Islam, managing director, Global Macro Strategy, Fixed Income of Citigroup, UK. He said there is no doubt that there are huge opportunities for making funds available from the capital market of Bangladesh.

He said Bangladesh just needs a proper domestic market with adequate infrastructure, right financial instruments, government bonds and corporate bonds. If the requirements are fulfilled, the five-billion-dollar local market will turn into a 20-billion-dollar market, he hoped.

Heihachiro Okamoto, managing director, Foreign Equity Sales, Equity Department of Nikko Citigroup in Japan, also expressed the same hope and said Japanese people are making money from the stock markets shifting themselves from the banking instruments.

Five years ago, the Japanese invested in a bigger way in the Chinese stock markets followed by investing in the Indian and Vietnam stock exchanges, he said. Now Japanese people look for the next destination, he added.

"Pakistan and Bangladesh are our next investment targets, but I had no idea about Bangladesh earlier. By participating in the investors' conference here I understand the people here are very keen to attract more foreign investment," he said.

Silmat Chishti, the coordinator for the conference, said, "I am very thrilled by the enthusiasm from both domestic and foreign investors as well as regulators. I am confident that a better future awaits the Bangladesh capital markets." Chishti has recently been assigned in Dhaka from Citigroup's Equity Capital Markets in Hong Kong.

Terming the Japanese investors' willingness to invest in Bangladesh a very good news, Abu Chowdhury of Emerging Markets Partnership, a global asset management fund, said the whole world wants Japanese investment in capital markets.

"We manage $ 8 billion funds in the infrastructure worldwide. We have invested $40 million in two power plants of Bangladesh very recently and we would like to do more investment here," Chowdhury said.

The Citigroup's managing directors and the global fund managers gathered in Dhaka to attend the first-ever investors' conference titled 'Bangladesh - The New Investment Frontier' organised by globally acclaimed financial services company Citigroup and Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. The conference ended yesterday.

Talking about the conference, Mamun Rashid, managing director of Citibank NA and Citigroup country officer-Bangladesh, said the conference was organised to let the foreign institutional investors know about the potential of the country's capital market and make them confident for taking decisions to invest here and at the same time create interest among the domestic investors and the entrepreneurs to take the capital market route for their growth and business expansion.