June 6, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24,1423

MANILA, June 5: The Asian Development Bank will on Thursday host an international conference at its Philippines headquarters to raise credit rating standards in the region, a bank statement said.

The conference is expected to facilitate “networking and information exchange on best practices” on credit rating, the Manila-based bank said.

Chief executives as well as senior officials of Asian credit rating agencies are to attend the meeting, which is co-organized by the Association of Credit Rating Agencies in Asia, it said.

Among the speakers are Philippine finance secretary Jose Isidro Camacho and Japan’s deputy finance minister Masahiro Kawai, the bank said.

The ACRAA is an organization comprising 13 credit rating agencies from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.—AFP