custodian system for debt instruments in hong kong, and other custodian systems in the region and international custodian systems such as the euroclear and clearstream. these linkages have been instrumental in fostering cross - border bond trading and investment. with the seamless interfaces between the cmu and the real time gross settlement ( rtgs ) systems in hong kong for the hong kong dollar, us dollar and euro, all transactions in debt instruments denominated in any of these three currencies and under the custodianship of the cmu can be settled in hong kong on a dvp basis in an efficient way. the recent ipo of the bank of china limited is probably a good example to demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of our hkd rtgs system : being a settlement system which typically handles an average turnover of $ 400 to $ 500 billion hong kong dollars a day, it saw a record high turnover of $ 1. 23 trillion on 1 june when the bank of china was listed on that day. notwithstanding such huge amount of settlement, the inter - bank payments were processed smoothly on that day. to further develop hong kong into a payment and settlement hub for the region, we will continue to explore opportunities for linking our rtgs systems and the cmu with similar systems in the region. for example, the hkma has been working with bank negara malaysia for the establishment of a link between the ringgit rtgs system and the us dollar rtgs system in hong kong. this is aimed at reducing the settlement risk of ringgit / us dollar foreign exchange transactions through pvp settlement in the asian time zone. the link is expected to go live by the end of 2006. we are exploring similar linkages with other asian central banks. bond price bulletin one of the factors affecting secondary market activities in the bond market is the lack of information on bond prices. to help overcome this problem, the hkma launched the bond price bulletin at the beginning of 2006. the bulletin provides investors with convenient on - line access to information on bond products and bond prices provided by eight major banks in hong kong. indicative bid / offer prices of over 200 bonds of different currencies issued by both public and private sector entities are provided by the eight contributing banks. outlook let me now turn to talk about the outlook of our debt market. notwithstanding the achievements we have made so far in developing our debt market, we fully appreciate that there is nothing to be complacent

they should start their own business. they borrowed money from their parents and relatives to set up a small noodle shop in wanchai. they worked very hard and the noodle shop ’ s business was doing well after several years. in the 1980s the couple used the money they had saved up to buy the shop space of their noodle shop. however, the business of the noodle shop began to decline in the 1990s. a friend of the couple offered help by giving the following advice : “ the noodle shop is too old - fashioned. people ’ s eating habit has changed and they prefer a wider variety of food in the form of a local cafe ( [UNK] [UNK] [UNK] ). " this sounded sensible and the couple took the advice and converted the noodle shop into a local cafe. the business improved initially but worsened again several months later. deeply disappointed, the couple consulted another friend and sought advice on what went wrong and what could be done. they were told that the food variety was still too limited. they should offer hot pot rice ( [UNK] [UNK] [UNK] ) and hot pot meals ( 火 [UNK] ) as well to attract a wider clientele. the couple thought it was a good advice and immediately launched the new products. in the first winter, the business went quite well but in the summer months it was dreadful. what was more surprising, in the second winter, the business fell even further. after two years of struggle, the couple felt that they had run out of new ideas and that there was no point to hang on. so they decided to close down the business and sell the shop space. so the couple went to see the branch manager of the bank to settle the outstanding mortgage payments. the branch manager, who was also an old customer of their noodle shop living in the neighbourhood, asked why they had to close their shop. the couple complained that the market environment, including people ’ s taste and eating habits had changed but they simply could not cope with these changes fast enough. the branch manager was astonished to hear this and said : “ i used to like your noodle shop very much in the earlier years, but for reasons i don ’ t understand, the quality of the noodles kept deteriorating. when you introduced the cafe, the food was even worse. the hot pot business is just out of place as there is not even space in the shop to serve this kind of food. ” 8. the couple suddenly realised at that very moment they had misunderstood the true reasons why their business