Wednesday, June 1 - Investor-Country Conference

8:30 – 9:00 AM            Coffee and Registration

9:00 – 9:30 AM            Welcome Remarks: Janamitra Devan, Vice President and Head of Network, Financial and Private Sector Development, The World Bank Group

Conference Opening Remarks: Salaheddine Mezouar, Minister of Economy and Finance, Morocco (PDF in French)

9:30 – 9:45 AM            Overview of the Gemloc Program

Alison Harwood, Manager, Securities Markets Group, The World Bank Group 

9:45 – 10:15 AM          Outlook for Investments in Local Currency Debt Markets

Cynthia Steer, Chair of Gemloc Advisory Board and Managing Director at Russel Investments

10:15 – 10:45 AM        GEMX Index: Randolf Tantzscher, Director, Head Index Research & Design, Markit, explains the composition and mechanics of the GEMX Index, including the investability indicators.

10:45 – 11:30 AM        Panel Discussion and Q&A: Challenges to measure investability were discussed and solutions sought from countries, investors, and other experts. Other aspects of the index, such as country and instrument eligibility, were also discussed.

Panelists:
 - Alison Harwood, Manager, Securities Markets Group, The World Bank Group
-  Cynthia Steer, Chair of Gemloc Advisory Board and Managing Director at Russel Investments

11:30 – 11:45 AM        Coffee Break

11:45 AM – 12:30 PM Gemloc Advisory Services: This session described different operations and initiatives of the Gemloc Advisory Services and how it can help address challenges to developing local bond markets.

Anderson Silva, Lead Securities Market Specialist, Securities Markets Group, World Bank Group

12-30 – 1:45 PM           Lunch

1-45 – 3:15 PM             Panel Discussion – Investor Insights: Investors shared their views on important factors in setting investment strategies for emerging bond markets. Discussions also covered the most important set of policies and reforms countries should implement to enhance investability of local markets and enhance financial stability.

Moderator: Alison Harwood

Panelists:
- Andrew Campbell, Head of the Americas, BlueBay Asset Management
- Denise Simon, Managing Director, Lazard Asset Management
- Michael Gomez, Executive Vice President, PIMCO
- Cynthia Steer, Chair of Gemloc Advisory Board and Managing Director at Russel Investments

3-15 – 3:30 PM             Coffee Break

3:30 – 6:00 PM             Individual meetings between investors, countries, and the Gemloc team

7:00 – 9:00 PM             Dinner

Thursday, June 2 - Investor-Country Conference

8:30 – 8:45 AM            Introduction to Day 2

Alison Harwood, Manager, Securities Markets Group, World Bank Group

8:45 – 9:15 AM            Overview

This introductory discussion explained the two sessions that will be held during the day. It set the stage for the interactive discussions between countries, investors and other experts seeking the actual mapping of effective actions and reforms to develop local currency bond markets.

9:15 AM – 12:15 PM  Local Currency Debt Markets Development Lab: Benchmark building and placement mechanisms

9:15 - 10:45 AM      Breakout Discussion 1: Two groups of countries (divided by regions) discussed key aspects that should be in their market development agenda to build market benchmarks and design competitive market-based placement mechanisms. Participants highlighted measures that have worked and those that have not. In each group, specific countries led the discussion on selected issues (e.g., issuance policies, liability management techniques, auction structures).
Group 1: Asia, Middle East & Africa
Group 2: Europe and Central Asia & Latin America and Caribbean

10:45 - 11:00 AM     Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:15 PM     Plenary Discussion: Key conclusions on policies to build market benchmarks and design market-based placement mechanisms

12:15 – 1:45 PM           Lunch with Keynote Speaker

Said Ibrahimi, CEO, Moroccan Financial Board

12:15 – 1:45 PM           Local Currency Debt Markets Development Lab: Secondary market trading and investor base (selected topics)

1:45 - 3:00 PM        Breakout Discussions 2:  Two groups of selected countries discussed key aspects that should be in their market development agenda to improve the efficiency of secondary market trading and diversify the investor base. Participants highlighted measures that have worked and those that have not. In each group, specific countries led the discussion on selected issues.
Group 1: Secondary Market Trading (market makers, price dissemination, and electronic trading platforms)
Group 2: Investor Base (investor specific reforms, portfolio composition and valuation, taxes, retail placement facilities, and foreign investor role and ICSD connectivity)

3:00 - 3:15 PM         Coffee Break

3:15 - 4:45 PM         Plenary Discussion: Key conclusions on policies to improve the efficiency of secondary market trading and diversify the investor base.

4:45 – 5:00 PM             Wrap-up of the Conference

Friday, June 3 - Gemloc Advisory Services Workshop

8:30 AM – 1:00 PM    Debt Markets Development: input for a formalized strategy

8:30 AM – 8:45 AM     Introduction to the Debt Market Development Framework

Anderson Silva, Lead Securities Markets Specialist, Securities Markets Group, World Bank Group

8:45 – 10:00 AM         Three country cases: Building a debt market strategy: Brazil, Malaysia, and Morocco presented in 15 minute sessions their debt market development strategy focusing on challenges and advantages of developing a formalized strategy. Following the presentations, participants discussed how the country cases described may be formalized into a debt market development strategy, making reference to their country experience.

Presenters:
-  Paulo Valle, Undersecretary of Public Debt, Ministry of Finance, Brazil
-  Kamilah Mohamad, Manager, Central Bank, Malaysia
-  El Hassan Eddez, Deputy Director of Treasury and External Finance, Head of the Debt Office, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Morocco

10:00 – 10:15 AM        Coffee Break

10:15 – 10:45 AM        Proposal of Topics and Components in a Debt Market Development Strategy: Formalized debt management strategies have become an accepted best practice across all debt management offices. Should this also be the case for debt market development strategies? This session presented a proposal of topics, components, sequence and challenges to build a debt market strategy. It built on country experiences at different stages of development and aimed at generating active contribution of country representatives in the subsequent session.

Catiana García, Senior Securities Markets Specialist, Securities Markets Group, World Bank Group

10:45 AM – 12:45 PM Roundtable on Building a Debt Market Development Strategy: All country representatives discussed experiences and views on how to develop a framework for designing a country-specific debt market development strategy. An outline distributed beforehand was used to guide the discussion.

12:45 – 1:00 PM           Wrap-up