The 2008 global financial crisis severely hit manyeconomies in Asia, but the year of 2009 broughthope to these economies. For most parts of Asia,the worst seemed to be over, and there were signsof recovery everywhere. Asia is still not back to thepre-crisis level yet, but the recent developments areencouraging.
The Asian economies experienced differentperformance levels during the crisis and adopteddifferent policy packages to stimulate theireconomies. As a result, the economies followeddifferent paths of recovery and performed quitedifferently.
China stood out to be the best performingeconomy after the outbreak of the global financialcrisis. It had maintained positive growth in allquarters since late 2008, even though many othereconomies in Asia - large or small - experiencednegative growth. Chinas economy grew with astrong rate of 9.0 percent in terms of its real GDP inthe third quarter of 2008 on a year-on-year basis,just before the financial crisis, but the growthslowed down to 6.8 percent in the next quarterright after the outbreak of the financial crisis. Afterreaching a trough of 6.2 percent in the first quarterof 2009, Chinas GDP growth accelerated to 7.9percent, 9.1 percent and 10.7 percent in subsequentquarters, resulting in an enviable annual growth of8.7 percent in 2009.

ACRONYMS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Chapter 1 The Asian Economies under the Global Financial Crisis: Recovery and Growth
1.1 Recovery and Growth of the Asian Economies
1.2 Responses of the Central Banks of the Asian Economies
1.3 Protectionism and Its Containment

Chapter 2 Trade and Investment Flows
2.1 Foreign Trade of Asian Economies
2.2 Foreign Direct investment

Chapter 3 Regional Cooperation and Economic Integration of the Asian Economies
3.1 Dramatic Rise of Regional Trade Agreements
3.2 ASEAN+3 and Beyond
3.3 APEC: A Possible Free Trade Area
3.4 Regional Economic Cooperation
3.5 The Degree of Correlation among the Asian Economies

Chapter 4 The Copenhagen Meeting and the Environment: A New Challenge for Cooperation in Asia
4.1 Joint Efforts of China and India at the Meeting
4.2 Environmental Situation in Asia
4.3 Efforts of Various Asian Governments
Appendix Ⅰ Chronological Dates of Economic Integration Agreements in Asia
Appendix Ⅱ Number of FTAs in Asia by Status (1975-January 2010)
REFERENCES

This report represents a report card on the progress of economic integration in Asia under the currentglobal financial crisis. It describes some of the major economic issues in the Asia-Australia region in the past，especially those events in the year 2009.
The report describes in detail the impacts of the global financial crisis on Asia， how the Asian economiesperformed during the crisis， how they responded to the hardship caused by the global financial crisis and the encouraging signs that Asia is leading the world on the recovery path. Notably， China and India， the twomost populous and fast-growing economies were able to maintain positive growth throughout the crisis.Their outstanding performance in growth and recovery have contributed substantially to the global efforts toovercome the current difficulties.
With the severity of the global financial crisis Asia stood firm to intensify its efforts for closer economiccooperation among its members. The Asian economies are more inter-dependent on each other than everbefore， with freer movements of goods， services， and capital. Faced with rising global protectionism， Asiacalled for greater trade and todays Asia has emerged as a great guardian of the free global trading system.
The report also examines the progress of economic integration and cooperation in Asia， including theASEAN Plus Three process， the APEC and the possibility of fulfilling its goal of becoming a free trade area，the progress of economic integration in sub-regions of Asia. As a matter of fact， the process of economicintegration in Asia is very much alive and is moving forward at a steady speed.
The Copenhagen Meeting， the environmental issues and the work done by the Asian governments arenot ignored in this report.The significance of these issues is that in terms of climate change and environmentalprotection， there has not been any formal cooperation framework among Asian members. Thus， the issuesprovide new opportunities for intensified regional cooperation.
Asia is leading the world on the recovery path after the global financial crisis， and there is strongevidence that Asia will continue to maintain its vitality and dynamism. No doubt， economic integration inAsia is intensifying， with more intensive and extensive cooperation and mutual dependence among theeconomies， through the channels of trade， investment， finance， and macroeconomic coordination. We trustthat the Asian members will make continued and joint efforts to overcome the current financial crisis andfulfill the goal of an integrated Asia.

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