At worst, running a restructuring operation in Thailand can be a life-threatening métier, but its practitioners face a host of other obstacles, not least getting paid. Paradoxically, Thais are also seen as being too gentle and non-confrontational to buckle down seriously to the business of extracting debt from each other. On the buying side of the business, major players such as Lehman Brothers claim to be making a fair return on the distressed debt they have acquired.

Russia never seems to play by the same rules as the rest of us. Its macroeconomic indicators for 2000 were the country's best in 30 years. The economy grew by somewhere between 7% and 8%; tax reforms - part of a wide-ranging economic reform plan - helped the government record a fiscal surplus of 3% of GDP, after many years of high deficits; the strong oil price helped Russia to rebuild its foreign currency reserves to $28 billion. Leading Russian companies took steps to improve their dismal record of abusing minority shareholder rights, under pressure from a government that understands the urgent need to attract foreign investment. The government itself concluded a renegotiation of commercial debts with the London club of private sector creditors in August 2000.

On a late-January afternoon, a group of settlements clerks, Brady bond traders, inter-dealer brokers, and other footsoldiers of the emerging-markets universe straggled into a small conference room on the 28th floor of JP Morgan Chase in Manhattan.

Asia’s clean-up of its banking mess is losing momentum. There is recognition of what needs to be done but getting there is proving difficult. The crisis atmosphere has abated and economic recovery will pull the banks along with it. But failure to deal with bad debts will hold countries back.

Vietnam’s newly created stock market boasts only five stocks, yet one foreign investor reckons its dematerialized system is far superior to London’s. Strong economic growth rates are attracting direct and portfolio investors. Enthusiasts reckon valuations are at their lowest and likely to rise before long.

The world's largest non-sovereign borrowers made further efforts to position their bonds as alternatives to increasingly rare sovereign issues in 2000. Futures on US agency bonds began trading, borrowers stuck to calendars in volatile markets and embraced the internet.

Turks are responding enthusiastically to the high-pressure promotion of internet access. So far, though, there’s not much money to be made from the business. Access providers will soon have to reconsider their cultural aversion to business consolidation, or else think smaller.

Malaysia has emerged from the Asian crisis to find itself occupying a lower place in the regional pecking order. From being one of the must-have equity markets for foreign investors, it has become an also-ran. Domestic equity demand is also depressed and it’s likely that in the near future bond markets will offer more interest.

The senior government official shook his head vigorously in affirmation. "Yes, Japan's budget deficit will grow. Yes, there will be a government bond crisis." Then he said: "The best scenario for Japan would be an earthquake that struck the downtown headquarters of the ruling Liberal Democrats when all its senior politicians were there. Then we might get some of the reform Japan needs."

Three years after the Asian financial crisis confidence has still not returned to the area. Many investors are sceptical that these countries have done enough to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Singapore’s deputy prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, outlines the changes that have been taking place in his country and his vision for the future.

Korean deputy finance minister Lee Kyun Kyong speaks about the barrage of criticism that has hit the government.

With a first round of bank restructuring that killed off more than half the country’s banks behind it, Korea is now facing up to consolidating what is left, ostensibly to enhance competitiveness and create economies of scale. It’s not clear, though, that the timing is right or that the government’s approach to mergers is appropriate or sufficiently disinterested.

As Seoul Bank faces being dragged into the government's financial holding company, CEO Kang Chungwon explains how he plans to get the bank back on track.

Calls from securities traders and investors for a more closely integrated system of clearing and settlement in the international securities market are growing louder and more impatient by the day. There were some signs of progress last year in Europe when Euroclear and Sicovam announced their definitive merger agreement and London Clearing House (LCH) and Clearnet said they planned to consolidate their activities. Yet progress in European consolidation has been slow. And even if it gathers momentum, questions remain on how to connect clearing and settlement systems globally.

Japan's ruling political party has been hit by a triple whammy of financial scandals just when the economy needs strong leaders.

John Chalsty might at first seem a strange choice to be creditex's new adviser to its board. The veteran banker spent most of his career at DLJ, starting in investment research before becoming head of investment banking and then CEO.

In spite of the battle in Seattle and the subsequent inertia that has gripped the World Trade Organization, Supachai says he is looking forward to taking over from Michael Moore as WTO director-general. “I want to be totally immersed in this work,” he says.

The slogan for this year in Seoul is Visit Korea 2001. The government hopes to drag in about six million tourists and earn several million dollars of foreign currency. Clearly it's hoping to attract visitors from further afield than North Korea. Indeed the government has another agenda, beyond managing the current account and strengthening reserves. Its programme also marks a crude attempt to prepare the population for the mass invasion that will soon follow. The football World Cup hits town next year.

Application service provision has transformed prospects for suppliers of risk-management software. Systems that smaller corporations would once have found too costly, or too feature-heavy, have become available relatively cheaply and in digestible chunks from ASPs on the internet. Even larger companies can see the advantages of the ASP strategy and it is possible that the model will supersede the installed software approach. Boris Antl and Richard Laden check out what is available and forecast market developments

The First step in building a strong bank is to have a strong, defined franchise. And each of Singapore’s banks can claim some success in one or two areas. But none has a really strong franchise worthy of a domestic, let alone regional, leader. And this is largely the result of complacent neglect of customer needs.

Head of media and telecommunications, Société Générale

It was a volatile year in the capital markets, as the telecoms sector clearly showed but still there were standout deals amid the chaos. Antony Currie, Anja Helk, Peter Lee, Julian Marshall, Jennifer Morris and Felix Salmon look back over 2000.

Thai Petrochemical Industry is Thailand’s biggest restructuring headache. And if it is going to pull itself out of trouble, its managers claim that it needs access to large amounts of working capital. But that is not forthcoming.

Japan's Ministry of Finance building has the feel of a British public school, and its occupants consider themselves the real rulers of Japan.

Babur Ozden discusses prospects for the Turkish Internet sector.

In a wide-ranging interview, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Thailand's deputy prime minister and director-general-elect of the WTO, talks about the successes and failures of government strategy in bringing Thailand out of the 1997-98 Asian crisis and assesses the prospects for a successful continuation of the work of the WTO

Thus far, two mergers in Singapore’s financial sector have failed to go through, and several cross-border ventures have gone awry. Find out why.

Issuer: Hutchison Whampoa Ltd Amount: $2.5 billion Type of issue: exchangeable bond Date of issue: January 8, 2000 Bookrunners: Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch

The restructuring of the Paris legal scene took an unexpected turn late last year, when one of the city’s leading French M&A partners finally gave up on his old firm and did what his colleagues had spent the last two years avoiding – he joined an Anglo-Saxon firm.

The abrupt resignation of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's president, John Mack, is the most serious yet in a series of setbacks over the past six months for a firm once seemingly immune to crises.