Asia will remain the fastest growing economy in the world in the next 20 years or even to the middle of this century, Dai Xianglong, China's former central bank governor, said at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 on Monday.[Special coverage]
In the past 20 years, Asia achieved an average yearly economic growth of 6.8 percent and it will keep the positive trend backed by strong development of China and India, Dai said, noting he is "very optimistic" about the region's future.
China, Japan and South Korea will strengthen their cooperation and China's Belt and Road Initiative offers new opportunities for Asia, although there are challenges of security issues and trade conflicts, according to Dai.
As a strong growth engine in the region, after decades of high economic growth, China is adjusting its development pace for better quality, Dai said, predicting the yearly GDP growth will be around six percent in the next 10 years.
The current trade tension between China and the US caused concerns on the Asian economy prospect.
Asian economies have been linked in industrial chains and China's exports contains a large number of material or parts imported from other Asian countries, so the China-US trade dispute may lead to turbulence in the whole region, Fan Gang, director of China's National Economic Research Institute, said at the forum.
Japan experienced similar trade conflict with the US in the 1980s, leading to an easy monetary policy. In addition to that, high leverage and aging population are also major factors that triggered asset price bubble to burst, Masaaki Shirakawa, former governor of the Bank of Japan, said at the forum, reminding other countries to pay attention to debt rate and demographic change.
There is no need to exaggerate the debt issue, Fan said, noting China's saving rate is as high as 44 percent of its GDP in 2017.
Li Yang, chairman of the National Institution for Finance and Development, also said that high saving rate may reduce damages caused by debt accumulation and capital outflow.
By CGTN's Yang Jing in Boao, Hainan Province
