Staff members are preparing for reception for the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) at the BFA International Conference Center in Qionghai, South China's Hainan Province on March 23, 2025. Photo: VCG
The Asian economy, one of the world's major growth engines, is projected to grow by 4.5 percent in 2025, with its share rising to 48.6 percent of global economic output measured by purchasing power parity, according to a report released by the Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday.
Notably, economies including China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Cambodia and Indonesia will maintain relatively high growth rates of more than 5 percent, said the Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress Annual Report 2025.
As for trade, the report noted that China has continued to report record highs in both goods and services trade. In terms of investment, the global reliance of foreign investment on Asian economies picked up despite some fluctuations, reaching about 60 percent in recent years. China and ASEAN were still the most attractive Asian economies for foreign investment, the report said.
With regard to innovation, Asia far exceeded other regions in terms of research and development investment intensity and patent filings, emerging as a global leader in technological innovation. Asia now stands at the forefront of a new industrial revolution, according to the report.
In the face of strong headwinds for economic globalization, Asia has achieved greater success in deepening regional economic integration. Steady progress has been made in new-generation trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, the report noted.
Asia's economic integration thrives on several major advantages from policy coordination and trade liberalization to deepening financial cooperation and strengthening infrastructure construction, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Wang said that Asian countries are strengthening infrastructure development in transportation, communications and energy to enhance resource allocation efficiency and productivity, laying a solid foundation for regional economic integration. Streamlined trade approvals, reduced tariff barriers and facilitated trade and investment flows are accelerating the integration process, he said.
Asia has become a key pillar of global value chains, as China has maintained its dominance and ASEAN has remarkably elevated its position in global value chains, while India has been increasingly integrated into Asia's regional value chains, according to the report.
The report also noted that China remains the center of gravity of global manufacturing value chains, and global trade in intermediate goods has been more dependent on China than on North America since 2017.
With its huge domestic market and unique advantages, China plays a vital role in safeguarding trade stability across the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, China's high-level opening-up will unlock the great potential of regional cooperation, the report said.
Beyond contributing to Asia's economic development and integration via its traditional strengths of manufacturing and infrastructure construction, China's rapidly growing digital economy - bolstered by a massive internet user base and a dynamic market as well as global leadership in e-commerce, mobile payments and big data - will sustain the momentum, Wang said.
Meanwhile, the rise of DeepSeek has not only changed the underlying logic of "arithmetic power first" in the artificial intelligence industry, but also allowed the world to see the development resilience and industrial vitality of China's economy and key industries in the face of high-intensity and precise US sanctions, the report pointed out.
It added that DeepSeek had strengthened China's role as a safe and secure island in an uncertain world, and boosted the confidence of global market participants in China's business environment, scientific and technological innovation capability, and long-term development potential.
Global Times
