2012 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Report is officially released

Today, the 2012 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Report is officially released to the public in three sections: 2012 Annual Asia Economic Consolidation Progress Report, 2012 Annual Rising Economies Progress Report, 2012 Annual Asia Economies Competitiveness Report.

1. 2012 Annual Asia Economic Consolidation Progress Report

This report mainly reflects the new progress in the consolidation of the Asian economies. It incorporates an ample amount of data and provides a clear line of progression, hence makes it a valuable research in its area.

This report covers the new growth in consolidating the Asian trade markets and the relative reliance in the service and trade industries that is especially true in the tourism market. The report provides support for building the foundation of a consolidated Asian economy.

The report also describes the new improvement in the financial convergence taken place within the last year. It incorporates many indexes to describe the new phenomenon after the initial consolidation of the Asian financial markets.

Moreover, this report states that sustainable growth should rely on domestic market demands. This provides momentum for the sustainability of the consolidation development in the Asian economies.

2. 2012 Annual Rising Economies Progress Report

This report makes a comprehensive and in-depth analysis on the 2012 annual progress of the 11 rising economies (E11, including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Russia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and South Africa). The report is very unique in the academic field.

Firstly, it analyses the dual-speed characteristic in today’s global economic growth– meaning that most of the developed nations are stuck in the recovering phase while the E11 countries on average are experiencing economic growth and overall development better than the developed nations. The report also describes the characteristics and internal disparities amongst the rising economies.

Secondly, this report provides a complete picture and analysis on the key endowments and basic infrastructures within the E11 nations. It also gives the comparison of the main indexes in both the E11 and the G7 (United States, Germany, Japan, France, England, Italy and Canada).

Thirdly, it describes and examines the primary economic progress of the E11 nations. It points out that the per capita GDP varies greatly within the E11. For example, in terms of the total volume of GDP, China ranks the second, E11 the first; but China’s per capita GDP only ranks slightly higher than Indonesia and India.

Fourthly, this report provides a full analysis on the E11’s performance on multiple categories including world economy, trade, finance, investment and international savings. Between 2000 and 2010, the gap between the major rising economies (E11’s annual growth is 6.3%) and main developed nations (G7’s annual growth is 1.5%) is gradually closing. The report forecasts that the overall scale of China’s economy will overtake that of the US in 2021.

Then, this report brings insights to the increase in trade between the E11 nations, the imbalance of the relative direct investment and the increase in cooperation amongst rising economies. At the same time, it provides analysis and forecasts on the cooperation between the E11 and developed nations. For example, some of the highlights in the report include the E11 nations continue to decrease their reliance on trade with the developed nations, the trend that the direct investment is moving towards dual direction and the developed nations’ intension to increase trade protection rather than eliminate barriers and so on.

Last but not least, this report conducts a systematic and in-depth analysis on each of the E11 nations.

3. 2012 Annual Asia Economies Competitiveness Report

This report is divided into two sections – respectively discusses and evaluates the Asian economy and the ranking and competition amongst Asian public companies. The ranking of competitiveness is based on Boao Forum for Asia’s own index system and data model; it is very high academic values.

The first half of the report mainly includes the internal and external trends that affect the competitiveness of the Asian economies. It provides an introduction of the evaluation indexes and an overall descriptive report. It introduces the author’s analysis on the 37 economies in the region (including the newly added Australia and New Zealand) – their competitiveness and ranking. The evaluation indexes and results have been significantly adjusted and improved than the ones from last year so the report itself can reflect the current economic condition in Asia and provide enough material for a reliable forecast. This year Singapore ranks the first in competitiveness in the Asian economies; China increased from last year’s 10th place to the 9th.

The second half mainly includes the world economy’s influence on the Asian public companies, their competitiveness indexes, evaluation report and combined competitiveness ranking. The report builds the index system that includes fundamental ability, development ability, winning ability and risk-resisting ability. The participants in this study include over 300 public companies in 41 stock exchanges located in Asia and Oceana regions. The report ranks the companies and provides detailed analysis on the top 50 companies. Lastly, the report provides ranking for the public companies based on different areas and industries.

The above three reports are officially published and are posted on the Boao Forum for Asia website: www.boaoforum.org. The BFA welcomes our media friends to repost the reports and provide insightful opinions.