After the Asian crisis of 1997, developing countries started paying more attention to the role ofcorporate bond markets in the economy. Having a strong local currency corporate bond market isexpected to help Asian economies like Vietnam better allocate funds into profitable investments andincrease resilience of the domestic financial sector to external shocks. The study attempts to exploreeconomic, financial, and institutional developmental factors that contribute to the growth of thesize of corporate bond markets by using the data set from ten Asian economies (China; Hong Kong,Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; and Vietnam). Theempirical findings by generalized least squares model show that the level of economic developmentas shown by GDP per capita is one of the most important factors in the development of corporatebond markets. Other significant factors are the availability of domestic bank credit and a thrivingmarket for government bonds. Better creditor rights protection also contributes to the growth ofcorporate bond markets. Furthermore, the study also intends to provide recommendations to furtherdevelop the Vietnamese corporate bond market