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Credit where it's due. Malaysia has truly seen a radical change in the last decade and half. Despite that surge and mechanisms to ensure its continuity in the face of competition from China and India, Prime Minister Abdullah's priority continues to be ensuring that Bumiputeras, a composition of mostly Malays and other tribal people guzzle the majority of the wealth.
Its rationale held validity in the 1970's, when the ethnic Chinese and others held 96% of its economy. Today that number is between 19% to 45%, depending upon the government figures or that of Lim Teck Ghee, the ousted economist of the Centre for Public Policy Studies who dared to expose the figures of the government. History shows, when the distribution of wealth has utmost priority, the creation of wealth becomes less likely. Malaysia's ambitions to hold its own in a dynamic Asia will be put to test.

Of all major decisive countries, Indonesia has an arduous task ahead of itself. (Yes, things can be worse). It has African levels of corruption, one of the most volatile currencies in the globe, 18,000 islands spread out over three time zones, Islamic extremists and worse still, a tsunami that reminds some commentators of Hiroshima. A fact that will embarrass the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono government. The only Asian member of OPEC is also a net importer of crude oil most months of the year. To be fair, Indonesian President S.B.Yudhoyono, has the right intention. He's made every attempt to increase foreign investment, liberalized certain sections of the economy and made tackling corruption a high priority. But the high budget deficit and the super one - sided labor laws make Indonesia hardly a place to invest in. The costs for firing a worker who has put in 20 years of service amount to 145 weeks of wages in Indonesia making it the world's sixth most-expensive place to dismiss workers after Sierra Leone, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Egypt, according to "Doing business", a World Bank ranking of economies by the ease of doing business in them. A slap on its economy came last year in April 2005, when the market capitalization of Google surpassed Indonesia's entire stock market in value.

Perhaps, things will change for the better and Bangladesh can one day become an Italy or China can do a Sweden. But then, Asia can also be a bubble that is on the verge of a bust.

Concluded.

* Contributed by: -
Vishal Bhargava,
Worked at BA Continuum Solutions,
Currently studying at Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai.