Asia House – an Asian centre of excellence in the UK – recently hosted the official launch of the Asian Development Outlook 2015 (ADO), the Asian Development Bank’s yearly economic report on the latest growth predictions and financial trends across the region.
The event involved a comprehensive presentation of the ADO report findings by Juzhong Zhuang, Deputy Chief Economist at the Asian Development Bank, including what’s driving GDP growth in the developing Asia region – specifically the 45 members of the Asian Development Bank.
Overall, the study showed a steady growth across this region in recent years, forecasting it to grow at a steady 6.3 per cent in 2015 and 2016. Interestingly, the forecast is lower than the five-year average for developing Asia of 7.1 per cent between 2010 and 2014, but the region still remains the fastest growing in the world.
During the discussion, Mr Zhuang also highlighted the economic potential of India, which is expected to grow at 7.8 per cent this year, faster than the People’s Republic of China, which is only expected to grow at 7.2 per cent. In 2016, India is forecast to grow at 8.2 per cent, which is again faster than China which is sitting at 7.0 per cent expected growth.
With these economic indicators in mind, Mr Zhuang said India was really driving growth in South Asia, with the Indian Government also making efforts to reduce the burden of regulations and existing infrastructure and technology bottlenecks.
An interesting discussion point focused on the future of technology and broadband development in Asia, including the role cloud technology plays in supporting financial growth throughout the region.
In recent years the cloud readiness of Asia-Pacific has grown substantially; there are now more connected devices, remote monitoring, universal access and greater computing power at lower costs. Consumers and businesses in the area are also communicating more than ever, across multiple platforms, as they seek to grow their business into new markets and countries.
It’s an exciting time and by 2019, Asia-Pacific is expected to generate the most web-traffic globally, according to Cisco – in fact, the region will create more than double the volume of data than that being produced in North America.
Such is cloud’s influence that over the coming years it will likely play a leading role in encouraging the workplace of the future to no longer be a physical location, but instead a dataset.
You can find more information on the Asian Development Outlook 2015 here.