Business

Thursday November 12, 2009

Asia poised to shine again


SINGAPORE: Asia, with its fast-growing economies and teeming billions, is poised for a new era in history.

This, according to Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, was largely due to a combination of factors including the rise of China and India, and the uplifting of the living standards of hundreds of millions in the region.

Kishore Mahbubani ... ‘What’s amazing is how fast the shift has taken place.’

According to various reports, including by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, China will be the world’s largest economy in the next decade, followed by India, the US and Japan.

Kishore said the world’s focus would shift back to Asia from the Western world as the region’s economies developed rapidly and regained the influence lost over the past 200 years.

“What’s amazing is how fast the shift has taken place.

“It’s a replica of what the Western world went through in the Industrial Revolution but magnified many times over,” he said at a briefing to members of the Kuala Lumpur Business Club.

Kishore said during the Industrial Revolution, living standards improved over 50% in a lifetime but, in Asia, living standards would improve 10,000% over the same period.

He said Asians had finally began to understand and absorb the “Seven Pillars of Western Wisdom” which included free market, science and technology, meritocracy, pragmatism, culture of peace, rule of law and education.

Kishore said China was an example of how a country had transformed itself in the last 30 years by embracing capitalism.

The mastery of science and technology had also boosted Asia’s growth with a report showing that by next year, 90% of all doctorates in the sciences would be awarded to Asians, he said.

“Asia has also invested a lot in research and development, and from the interest that Western research universities have shown in recent years in the region, they know that the competition is here,” he added.

He said young Americans were flocking to Asian universities as they knew the future was in Asia and they wanted to connect.

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