Asia doing better after financial crisis

MANILA, Philippines, July 2 (UPI) -- Asian countries are more resilient now to sudden economic shocks than before, according to the Asian Development Bank.

A decade has passed since East Asian nations faced a financial meltdown that triggered an economic decline across the region, but that crash has pushed countries to introduce fundamental economic reforms, making them stronger than before, said the ADB's head Haruhiko Kuroda.

"The evolving global economic environment, cross-border production networks, and the advances in information technology helped leaders recognize the need to work together to build better resilience to potential shocks -- both external and internal," Kuroda said in a speech at a symposium on post-crisis Asia.

The collapse of the Thai economy had spread across the region, most notably to Indonesia and South Korea, and many analysts had estimated that it would take decades for Asia to recover to its former economic level.

But Thailand's Finance Minister Chalongphob Sussangkarn argued that "the crisis provided many lessons that led to crucial economic and financial reforms in the region. The policies adopted have made financial institutions stronger and more resilient to risks. Several sources of vulnerabilities, however, remain and governments in the region need to closely monitor the trend of macro financial variables."