ABSTRACT
Asia has always been a major contributor to the global economy because of its large population, albeit at a lower per capita rate in comparison to most other regions. According to economic historian Angus Madison, at the beginning of the twentieth century Asia accounted for about a third of world output, with North America and Europe producing over half. By the early 1980s, however, the Asian capitalist economies were moving aggressively, wherever possible, to increase the energy efficiency of their industries and to reduce their overall dependence on imported energy. Amid the economic stagnation of the West following the global financial crisis, China's resurgent strong growth was generally assumed to be a boon to the world economy. The revival of China's reform process after 1992 and its increasingly outward-looking development strategy has had far-reaching implications not only for China's economic development but also for the Asian regional community and the world.
