"Turnover (in the Singapore government bond market) has increased from Singapore $534 million daily in 1997 to more than $800 million in January to July 1998," Lee Boon Ngiap told a banking conference.

"Daily turnover surpassed $1 billion in June and July this year," said Lee, a senior deputy director in the MAS marketing division.

He said several government statutory boards, which have already moved the necessary legislation through parliament, were expected to "come into the market pretty soon, within the next one to two months" to raise funds in the domestic bond market.

Lee's comments followed the signing of a S$300 million supranational bond, the first of its kind to be issued, by the World Bank's International Finance Corp (IFC) on Monday.

IFC principal Financial officer Mamta Shah said MAS helpensured that the bond issue took place in record time.

Outlining measures taken to boost the bond market so far, Lee said Singapore meant to play the debt centre role that New York had in North America and London had in Europe.

The MAS package of initiatives to boost tiny Singapore as a bond centre have included an inaugural issue of a S$1.5 billion 10-year Singapore government bond, allowing foreign institutions to issue Singapore-dollar denominated bonds and tax incentives for Singapore bond market activities.

Lee told the conference Singapore's aim was to be "the leading international debt hub in Asia ex-Japan" and "the premier centre" for asset management.

It also wanted to be the "major reinsurance centre for Asian business" and to develop its equity market into a "world class exchange" among other things, he said.

Lee said the MAS, the de facto central bank, was also encouraging more multi-nationals to base their finance and treasury centres (FTCs) in Singapore.

Companies which have done soinclude Asea Brown Boveri Ltd, Daimler Benz, Nokia and General Electric, he said.

MAS senior director Teo Swee Lian said 30 to 40 companies had set up FTCs in Singapore and the number was "growing steadily".

She said the centres were usually set up to allow the firms to monitor their "fixed investments in the region" during the Asian crisis and to look for further investment opportunities.

The MAS had also recently completed a manpower survey on Singapore's finance industry in an effort to identify the manpower gaps in the fast changing industry, Lee said.