Can Asia save the sinking world economy?

Since the fourth quarter of 2010, the global economy has faced serious uncertainty and a turbulent outlook.


Both the US and Europe have gloomy growth prospects due to a lack of credible medium-term plans for debt reduction in the US and the sovereign debt crisis in southern Europe.

Against the downside risk to growth in the West, Asia’s recovery and growth in the past three years has been exceptional. China and India recorded the highest growth rates in the world with 10.3 and 10.1 per cent in 2010, respectively, while Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam (ASEAN-5) grew 6.9 per cent. Asia, with a solid global market and a large pool of foreign exchange reserves, has proven to be the shining light of the world economy.

Asia’s future prospects are likely to be affected by the West, yet ‘rising Asia’ also appears able to help save the sinking world economy. Even with weaker demand from the West, Asian growth in 2012 is expected to remain strong on the back of solid domestic demand. But for robust, sustainable and balanced world growth, Asia needs to shift from its conventional extra-regional export orientation to intra-regional demand as a way to help advanced economies recover and to ensure its growth sustainability.

How can Asian governments accomplish these twin objectives amid the current global turbulence? First, they must continue to shift to more domestic demand-based growth in the short and medium term and accelerate ongoing regional economic integration to allow freer intra-regional trade and more cross-border investment. This policy shift will result in two things: greater self-propelled growth and more imports from Western economies, especially the US, which would help correct chronic trade imbalances and raise the growth potential of America and Europe.

Second, Asian governments must minimise external financial contagion and expand intra-regional FTAs to spur sustainable economic growth.

How can they do this? One effective means would be to create a cross-border free trade regime in East Asia. At present, there is a relatively low degree of intra-regional trade share in East Asia. Intra-regional trade among ASEAN+3 countries has increased steadily since 1998, when the Asian financial crisis was subsiding, but slowed a little after 2005. In 2008, the East Asian intra-regional trade ratio, at about 37 per cent, was lower than that of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and far lower than the euro zone’s ratio, with 60 per cent. Considering that the euro zone and NAFTA are free trade blocs, it seems plausible that East Asia could find significant growth sources from its own regional domestic demand if it established an East Asia-wide FTA.

Given the ongoing hub-and-spoke issues around intra-regional FTAs, East Asia should adopt a strategy of ‘doing easy things first’. A good example of such an approach is the Chiang Mai Initiative, which is already under way. The Asian Bond Market Initiative could also be accelerated to provide a viable cross-border financing scheme to small and medium enterprises. In this regard, a cross-border regional cooperation mechanism among sub-regions and mega-cities such as the Pan-Yellow Sea Circle and Greater Mekong Sub-Region could be a starting point.

Northeast Asian integration has great potential to build a robust regional community of peace and prosperity. It is encouraging that China, Japan and Korea in May 2010 agreed to establish a secretariat office in Seoul to address trilateral regional issues. Apart from FTA talks in Northeast Asia, Asian governments in ASEAN+6 need to pay attention to many proposals in cultivating diverse ‘public goods’ such as cross-border oil and gas pipelines and railways to enhance connectivity. Dynamic benefits resulting from a cross-border, bottom-up approach could also be derived from establishing common standards for production technology, product regulations, distribution and after-sales services.

By accumulating success stories for open Asian regionalism, major Asia Pacific economies can work together toward an Asia Pacific Economic Community, which the APEC forum has long addressed. Though it may take time to nurture mutual trust and confidence, Asia should be eager to establish open regionalism which a variety of external stakeholders, including the US, India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, can join. Asian open regionalism needs to be translated into an Asia Pacific Economic Community to ensure it will be a building block toward viable multilateralism, not a stumbling block.

At this critical juncture of the world economy, East Asian integration must be pursued to increase its own growth momentum internally. Asia must move aggressively to shift its focus to the region’s 3.5 billion consumers so that its intra-regional demand-led growth can contribute to balanced and sustainable global growth. The Greek debt crisis clearly showed that no country can overcome the emerging economic malaise without a strong manufacturing base. Consequently, Asian economies need to strengthen the already existing global ‘manufacturing house’ through intra-regional trading. But Asia is diverse and still not free from historical rivalries. For both its own growth and the good of the global economy, Asia needs visionary political leadership to put historical legacies behind and look toward a long-term vision for an Asia Pacific Economic Community.

Choong Yong Ahn is Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, Chung-Ang University, Seoul.This is an abridged version of an article that originally appeared here in Global Asia.