Singapore is a different sort of "emerging-market", to be honest - it's economy has historically been far too open (and too small) to disallow that sort of thin

Singapore is a different sort of "emerging-market", to be honest - it's economy has historically been far too open (and too small) to disallow that sort of thing from happening. A similar theme applies to South Korea - which probably has the most sophisticated bond market in Asia (ex-Japan). Even for Japan as well, the most sophisticated market in Asia, the keiretsu system drives most of the inter-corporate funding and credit. The equity capital markets in both China and India are peanuts as compared to the bank-lending market for corporate funding and that's likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future - a crash in the HSI or the Sensex doesn't spell doom for the economy. The fact that we see China willing to allow RMB-trading in the London markets or to build an equity market-making operation implies a tactical funding alternative - not wholesale market "liberalization" as we perceive it. As far as the debt-markets are concerned, these countries have been extremely wary of the implications - especially post the credit-crisis and the disastrous impact on high-yield names in the developed world. Non-performing corporate loans are a big problem as it is in both these nations and unsafe leverage is avoided at all costs. Foreign-currency bond issuances are strictly controlled by their respective central banks and domestic-currency corporate issuance is virtually non-existent. For a recent example of strict capital controls: to safeguard the Indian economy against commodity inflation and INR weakness on general growth concerns, the RBI imposed strict conditions on importers/exporters specifically and on FII transactions generally.