WAM ABU DHABI: The status of corporate bond markets in Arab countries and the challenges faced in terms of legal and institutional framework and infrastructure required for developing efficient government and corporate bond and sukuk markets in the region Wednesday were discussed here by the Conference on "Strengthening Debt Capital Markets in the Arab World" on Wednesday brought together a host of Senior representatives from Arab Ministries of Finance, Central Banks, Capital Markets Authorities and Stock Markets, as well as various international and regional financial and investment institutions from the across the world are taking part in the two-day conference which was organized by the Arab Monetary Fund, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in cooperation with the Gulf Bond and Sukuk Association and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi and Director General Chairman of the Board of the Arab Monetary Fund Dr.

Jassim Al-Mannai, Vice President in charge of Financial Sector Development at the World Bank and Deputy Director of Monetary and Capital Markets at the IMF were the first speakers at the opening of the conference.

The Conference will be an opportunity to also focus on the consequences of the international financial crisis and issues of European sovereign debt on the market in the region.

Among the topics to be tackled at the event are harmonizing regional regulation and practice, incentivizing companies to issue, growing the investor base, and trading systems tailored for bonds and sukuk.

WAM/MMYS