Asia prospers economically - Deputy Speaker

Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody said the remarkable economic growth in Asia and its continuing growth rate are the outstanding features of the Asian Century. Asia represents some of the world's most vibrant and stable democracies.

The Deputy Speaker made these observations on the topic of "Asian Century: Cooperation on Economy, Energy and Environment" at the 6th Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) Plenary Session held in Islamabad, Pakistan recently.

Asian countries were more and more integrated than ever before considering common issues in the broader context of economic integration rather than a single country.

Once an Indian Strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney said that "whereas Asia's coming together economically, it is not coming together politically". Nevertheless, trade has integrated all the major economies of Asia.

He said the West is looking at Asia because Asian economies provide a lot of economic opportunities. Asia attracts Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in a massive way. Asia's role is important in shaping tomorrow's world.

According to ADB, Asia's GDP would increase from $17 trillion in 2010 to $ 174 trillion in 2050 or half of the global GDP. Economic forecast highlighted the trend towards China becoming the largest and India the second largest economies by the year 2050 in terms of GDP. By 2050, the East Asian and South Asian economies will grow by over 20 times, he said.

Weerakkody said being the most populous region, South Asia's energy reserves were very low, particularly for oil and gas reserves, respectively 0.5 percent and 0.8 percent of the world's total oil and gas reserves. By contrast, Central and West Asia was 4.1 and 5.6 percent respectively.

These figures show an unequal distribution of energy in different regions of Asia. Asia's energy picture urges regional cooperation and adoption of strategies at national, subregional and regional levels to realise the Asian Century by achieving sustainable economic growth. In the resource-constrained future, isolated policy action at the national, sub national or sub regional levels cannot resolve many issues in the region of Asia.

It needs cross-border coordination between national governments, collaboration between national and local governments as well as creation of institutions that can support and enable consultation with stakeholders including their views or concerns, the Deputy Speaker said.