Three billion people in Asia could get rich by 2050, Asian Development Bank says

Will this be the “Asian Century”? A whopping 3 billion more people in Asia could be rich by 2050 if the region’s fast growth rates continue and some major challenges are met, such as reducing corruption, the Asian Development Bank said.

With global economic growth shifting to Asia, the region could account for 51 percent of all global production, trade and investment by the middle of the century, the Manila-based lender said in a draft report presented at its annual meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam.

If this shift in global output happens, then Asia’s gross domestic product would skyrocket to $148 trillion, compared to $16 trillion today. This would mean that 3 billion more Asians would enjoy a prosperous standard of living.

“As Asia leads the world out of recession, the global economy’s center of gravity is once again shifting toward the region,” ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said, reports Bloomberg.

“The transformation under way has the potential to generate per capita income levels in Asia similar to those found in Europe today,” Kuroda said, according to Bloomberg. “By the middle of this century, Asia could account for half of global output, trade, and investment, while also enjoying widespread affluence.”

But none of this is guaranteed, warned Rajat Nag, the ADB’s managing director general, reports VOANews.com. Asia still faces some serious challenges, he said, in particular corruption, and economic growth must be inclusive.

There are other major hurdles in the region: half of all people in Asia live without basic sanitation and 900 million people lack electricity, VOANews.com reports.

“The recent deterioration in the quality and credibility of national political and economic institutions (illustrated by rising corruption) is a serious concern,” ADB warned in its report.

"If Asia could address these, what we call the three 'I’s,' inequities, institutional deficiencies, and innovation, then Asia might be able to avoid the middle income trap and move onto this higher trajectory of the Asian Century," Nag said.

The “middle income trap” refers to a potential situation where Asia’s fastest growing economies — China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam — slow down in the coming years and income levels plateau.

Nag warned that even if the “Asian century” becomes a reality, the region will still lag behind the United States and Europe, though it would be slightly better off than the global average.

“Asia has some major challenges. If those challenges are faced squarely now, Asia can be more prosperous,” Nag said.