The world is experiencing a siege of disruptions, both economic and political—and we think that they may trigger a new era for the world.
Asia is in a strong position to influence and shape a new era not only for its own economies, but for the world. That is because Asia is the world’s new majority. It accounts for more than half of many key metrics we use to analyze the world. For example, Asia accounted for 52 percent of growth in global GDP between 2010 and 2020. Asia also contributed 59 percent of growth in global trade and 53 percent of the manufacturing value added over the past two decades.
But can we really talk about Asia as a single entity? It is so large, about 45 million square kilometers. That’s almost five times the size of Europe. It is incredibly diverse, speaking more than 2,000 languages. And its economies are at very different stage of development. The per capita GDP of Singapore is 60 times that of Nepal, for example.
We think that there are at least five different Asias: Advanced Asia, China, India, Emerging Asia, and Frontier Asia. They will experience the new era differently. Nevertheless, we think they have strong complementarities, stitching them together through pragmatic economic cooperation.