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and challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises. The next four chapters are devoted to credit enhancement and securitization in supporting Asian bond developments. Chapter 4, "Institutional Foundations: Credit Insurers, Asset-backed Securitization Corporations and Asian Bond Funds" focuses on the issue of credit rating in developing Asian bondmarkets. The contributors recommend that credit insurers should be upgraded, securitization promoted, and Asian bond funds encouraged. Literature on regional and domestic insurers and asset-backed securitization corporations are well put together and clearly worth reading. Chapter 5 "The Structure and Characteristics of East Asian Bondmarkets" contains an assessment of the ABF and the ABC. In the contributor's view, the possibility of the regional bondmarkets should stem from credit enhancements (for sovereign, quasi-sovereign, municipal, and corporate borrowers) and the Asian common currency. Concerns and roadmap of the Asian common currency are, however, not laid out in the chapter. Chapter 6 "The Role of Securitization and Credit Guarantees" calls attention to six areas of policy action and reform needed to strengthen Asian bondmarkets. These are market infrastructure , legal framework, repurchase markets, derivatives markets, investor bases, and credit culture. In this chapter, readers will gain experience from Chile's pension reform and a local credit rating agency as a good example for Asian bondmarket development. Chapter 7 "The Asian Bond Bank: A Good Idea for Credit Enhancement" proposes an application of the municipal bond model used in the United States and other Western countries to Asia region. The contributors believe that the Asian bond bank could reduce costs for bond issuers and make Asian bonds more attractive to investors. Literature reviews on the municipal bond banks in the United States and Canada have been well written and thoroughly researched. In much of this book, the analyses of Asian bond initiatives and bond statistics are analytically rigorous although repeatedly interpreted and cited in many of the chapters. In short, there has been a lack of coherence by the various contributors. The various proposals on Asian bond development can confuse readers as to what is the best and most comprehensive model for Asian bondmarkets, and whether the usage of the term "Asian" on the book title is deliberately intended to infer beyond the ASEAN+3 grouping of countries. All in all, this edited volume provides interesting insights into the issues of regional bond markets and contains illuminating chapters that pertain directly to East Asia. It is a useful contribution to the literature on the Asian crisis particularly as a reference for financial market reforms. This book clearly achieves the contributors ' intention of providing a useful book to policy-makers in the region. It is also recommended for readers who have a background in Asian financial markets. This book stands individually as an additional resource. A follow-up forum that reports on the progress of Asian bondmarket development and further policy recommendations is hoped for. SAKULRAT MONTREEVAT Institute ofSoutheast Asian Studies, Singapore Rural Development and Agricultural Growth in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Edited by Takamasa Akiyama and Donald F. Larson. Washington, D.C.: World Bank 2004. Pp. 558. This book provides a comprehensive review of rural development and agricultural growth in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Factors that have influenced agricultural development in these countries were identified and discussed. A cross-country analysis was presented using a multidisciplinary approach. The authors compared and explained in reasonable detail how differences in ecology or geography, institution, political structures or regimes, economic policies, rates of protection, and export intensity could have ASEAN Economic Bulletin 243 Vol. 22, No. 2, August 2005 affected agricultural developments in these three Southeast Asian countries over the last few decades. It is of interest to note that favourable government or political regimes and economic policies that encouraged exports, trade liberalization , structural transformation, cropping diversification , and more value adding in agriculture, have inter alia, rendered growth in Thailand to surpass that of Indonesia and the Philippines. This point is well substantiated by the data and empirical evidence presented by various authors in this book. In general, the importance of agriculture in these developing countries is well elaborated. In what follows, instead of providing an overview or summary of its content, I will...

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