Asia Brief

The Asia Pacific region, as classified by the financial markets, is vast and culturally diverse. It includes three of the world's emerging giant economies: China, India and Indonesia and is home to 3.5 billion people, 57% of the world's population. The way economies develop in Asia Pacific will have a profound impact on the health and stability of the entire world and it is to be hoped that Asians take a leadership role in defining pathways to sustainable development, which other countries may also follow. In 2000, the World Bank reported that the region was again the fastest growing and most economically dynamic in the world. But at what cost? According the Mr Kassum, the Bank's Vice-President for East Asia and the Pacific Region the stakes are high for East Asia's poor: "If growth turns out to be 5% annually until 2008 and it is equally shared, the number of people living in poverty in East Asia, including China, would fall from 278 million to 72 million. Slower growth of only 4% and with less equal income distribution would leave more than twice as many - 182 million - in poverty in 2008. "The 1997/8 economic crisis has revealed that growth by itself can not substitute for an effective social safety net system". Mr Kassum went on to say "Building a social agenda that embraces the vulnerable groups of society remains a deep-seated challenge for east Asian economies. Clearly the private sector has an important role to play in this social agenda - especially in the provision of health, education and pension systems". This is precisely what social investors intend to encourage Asian corporations to do. Beyond welfare issues, the environmental challenges faced by the region are daunting. For example, it is estimated that discharges of industrial pollution are likely to increase tenfold in the next two decades with a "business as usual" approach. Across the region as whole, the costs of air and water pollution and soil degradation are estimated to be above 5% of annual GDP and in China the costs may already be as high as 10%. Urban and industrial pollution are growing more rapidly than economic growth. Most environmental programmes are directed to critical issues such as deforestation and water management. Far less is directed to making corporates more resource efficient and less polluting in the first place. Yet it is the growth of industrial activity and urbanisation which is causing many of the more chronic environmental problems.. environmental destruction by a thousand cuts. This is why investor support is so essential to ensure corporates fully address the issue of environmental stewardship. Momentum is already building in Asia. One consequence of the crisis is that stricter levels of corporate governance are already being called for. Indeed Asia is unique in having a regional private sector corporate governance association, 'The Asian Corporate Governance Association'. SRI is one of the key tools for building a sustainable future for Asia. By bringing environmental and social considerations together with financial ones, SRI allows investors to take more responsibility for their own future.

According to UNEP's GEO 1 report Asia was the only region where the state of the environment was "critically important" and a deteriorating trend was evident on every examined area (land degradation, forest loss, biodiversity loss, marine degradation, air pollution, and industrial waste). SRI is the stock markets' answer to sustainable development. In Asia premature death and illness caused by environmental health risks accounts for almost one fifth of the total burden of disease (DALY's) in the region.