Sustainability of Asia\\\'s growth and global economic recovery

The facts such as Asia is now at the forefront of global economic growth and its economies, compared to countries in other continents, are far more resilient remain undisputed. There has been constant erosion in the pride of the western economies and the financial meltdown originating from the world's largest economy, the USA, has only exacerbated the erosion. Even when the giants economies in the continents of Europe and North America were struggling to come out of worst-ever recession starting from 2008, Asian economies displayed resilience and made a comeback within a reasonable period of time. And the process is still on.
Thus, the combined strength of the Asian economies and their potentials in carrying forward the ongoing global economic recovery quite befittingly discussed intensively at the just concluded two-day International Conference, organized by the Bangladesh chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The conference, which was inaugurated by the Bangladesh President and attended by policymakers, business leaders, academics and officials of international trade bodies, did also pinpoint the actions that would help enhance Asia's ability to strengthen their respective economies and make far greater contribution to the efforts for global economic recovery.   
The conference put forward a set of recommendations including some aimed at fostering greater trade and investment cooperation both at global and regional levels. Yet some other suggestions relating to financial sector development, governance, environment and political dispensation, if complied with, would help many individual Asian countries flourish and enjoy better economic and political climate at home. However, participants did not miss a very important point that Asia cannot flourish in isolation and its economies would have to make right type of integration among themselves and with the rest of the globe to ensure an inclusive and sustainable growth.
When one talks about Asia, naturally, one cannot skip the issues concerning performance of two neighbouring economies, China and India. Much depends on their growth and their trade and investment cooperation with other regional economies. It is expected that the policymakers of the Asian economies would set their respective agendas focusing on the issues mentioned above. They might need to reform and redesign trade and investment policies to enhance greater trade integration.  The conference was specific about raising such integration in South Asia and made a few suggestions including the one relating to the creation of South Asia Customs Union.  
Its rising economic strength would not just put Asia at the forefront of global economic recovery efforts. Rather the benefits are expected to trickle down to the millions of poor people, provided the governments of individual countries, particularly those of South Asia, are serious enough to employ the right kind of policies. The economic prosperity has helped many Asian countries to bring down their number of poor people, but not up to the desired level. The Asian governments while competing globally to ensure the top spot for the continent must not forget the poorer section of their population and try to pull them out of abject poverty.