BRITISH banking giant HSBC sees developing countries in Asia in a much better position to withstand the current global financial turmoil than during the 1997-98 regional currency crisis.

While emerging Asia would slow down alongside the global downturn triggered by the US credit crunch, the region--the world's fastest growing in the last few years--would likely remain resilient, HSBC group chief operations officer Michael Geoghegan said in an international teleconference late Monday.

He said Asia outside Japan would still sustain a respectable growth of 7 percent this year.

"If the world economy slows, Asia will be impacted, but unlike the Asian crisis, the Asian economies are strong. They have strong reserves, current account reserves and each country is capable of stimulating domestic demand," Geoghegan said.

He noted that Asian stock markets have already fallen by 40-50 percent this year but the outlook was now turning to be "modestly positive."

"Asia is certainly still stronger than in other parts of the world and will remain stronger than in other parts of the world," he said.

HSBC would like to see contribution from emerging markets rising to 60 percent as a ratio of its business.

"We will continue to focus on core business, accepting deposits and lending," he said.

Asked whether HSBC was interested in some of the assets of beleaguered US financial giant AIG, he said the group would "look at opportunities as they arrive" but could not comment at this point in time.

In the Philippines, he said HSBC would continue to build opportunities in business process outsourcing or global resourcing. HSBC recently opened its second BPO hub along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

HSBC's pre-tax profits hit $4.3 billion in the third quarter, higher than a year ago, despite loan write-offs in the United States. Loan impairment charges in the United States rose by $700 million from the second quarter.