The Asian economic landscape has changed a great deal during the past 10 years and this exciting region continues to develop rapidly. Asia's importance to the global economy continues to increase and the past decade has seen the region become a much more significant economic player. While trade with the rest of the world has continued to show impressive growth, intra-Asian trade -- fuelled, in part, by a middle-class that it growing in numbers and affluence -- has also developed in its importance to the region, affording it a greater level of protection against economic shocks originating in the EU and the US.
However, while these developments are certainly to be welcomed, they have...