Asia managed to escape the worst of the financial crisis in 2008, but with continuing weakness in other parts of the global economy, especially in Europe, policymakers in Asia need to redouble efforts to address problems in their own economies in order to ensure sustainable growth in the region, according to the latest issue of Global Asia.

“Now isn’t the time to be complacent about the challenges facing Asia’s major economies, because strong economic fundamentals here will ultimately determine whether Asia can continue to overcome the absence of strong export demand in traditional markets such as the U.S. and Europe,” said Moon Chung-in, editor-in-chief of Global Asia, a quarterly journal published by the East Asia Foundation in Seoul.

In a series of articles that focus on the five major Asian economies ― China, Japan, South Korea, India and Indonesia ― the journal examines the unique challenges each of these countries faces, as well as those they have in common.

“Given the increasing interdependence among Asia’s economies, policymakers in each country must make the right choices to benefit the region as a whole,” Global Asia’s editors write in an introduction to the series.

“What happens in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere matters, but it is in Asia that leaders can make a difference in what happens here.”

Concerns about the economic outlook in the region have increased in recent months amid signs that China, which is increasingly the engine of regional growth, is experiencing a notable slowdown in its economy. In addition, Japan has recently slipped back into recession, heightening fears that the policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may fail to revive the long-stagnant Japanese economy.

“It has been more than seven years since the global financial crisis started in the U.S. and swept across the world, wiping out assets, destroying jobs, transforming political fortunes and even threatening the very existence of the euro,” the editors wrote.

“The economies of Asia, learning from the lessons of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998, were better prepared to weather the storm and were far less badly mauled than the U.S. and Europe. But the long road to a full recovery in the world economy has not yet been traveled.”

Moon said that the increasing interdependence of Asian economies provides not only a potential bulwark against periods of weakness in the U.S. and Europe, but also affords an opportunity for Asian governments to promote greater regional integration.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)