Asia set for 'Golden Age'

THE next 10 years might well be a 'golden age' for Asia, and the region could even become a new source of prosperity and stability for the world, predicted Dr Tony Tan, deputy chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) on Monday.

That's because Asian countries - together with other emerging markets like Brazil and Russia - will power global growth in the coming years, and the world's investors will want to invest more in them. But success will depend on the skill of Asian policymakers in dealing with the economic risks ahead, he warned.

Dr Tan was crystal ball-gazing at an economic forum organised by Taiwan's prominent CommonWealth magazine in Taipei on Monday. In a keynote speech to 550 businessmen, he outlined how the world was likely to change after the global financial crisis.

The good news, he said, was that a global depression has been avoided. Global growth could hit 3 to 4 per cent this year, up from a contraction of nearly 2 per cent last year.

But growth is likely to be uneven, with the strongest showing coming from the emerging economies, especially Asia. He emphasised that the United States and key parts of Europe will take much longer than people think to recover.

'The current recovery could be strong, at least in the short-term, but even the most optimistic economist expects the bounce to be much weaker than what has occurred in the past. In the US, growth could be moderately strong in the first half of 2010 before slowing down to a below-average pace.'