Asia seen to remain global growth driver in next 4 years

The European Union predicts that 90 percent of world economic growth until 2015 will come from outside of the borders of the 27 member-states, and that the major part of that growth will come from Asia, which includes member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations such as the Philippines.

According to Karel De Gucht, EU Commissioner for Trade, a third of that growth over the next four years will come from China alone—which he predicts would eventually become the biggest economy in the world—and about a fourth will come from the rest of Asia.

Europe is very much aware of the growing importance of Asia to its economic future, said De Gucht last Tuesday during a briefing in Brussels with visiting journalists from Southeast Asia, which is why about half of the time of the trade unit of the European Commission is dedicated to Asia, particularly China.

“We should be very much present in Asia in terms of trade,” said De Gucht, adding that European companies themselves realized that they could not grow if they were not present in Asian countries that were experiencing rapid economic development despite the global economic crisis.

Europe predicts that only 10 percent of global economic growth will come from its borders up to 2015, as most of the member-states of the EU are already mature economies with aging populations and burdened by a heavy sovereign debt as well as high unemployment.

To ramp up its presence in Asia, De Gucht said the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, was in the process of entering into broad trade agreements that should be beneficial to both the individual Asian countries and Europe.

As for the Philippines, De Gucht said the EU and the Philippines had “complementary economies” and that both parties should be able to craft a mutually beneficial free trade agreement.