APEC summit - success reaped by "economies of knowledge"

Before the Bangkok forum of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation began, updated statistics of the region's economy were widely circulated. Researchers operating within the APEC forum and outside it filed their reports for the occasion.

The analysis of the circulated data in Bangkok shows above all that the Asia-Pacific economy is at the peak of its development.

The World Bank filed a special report for the APEC forum, noting that the Asia-Pacific region has generally accomplished cyclic restoration and switched over to long-term growth. GNP growth in East Asia is expected to reach five percent this year and six percent next year.

Up till now, the Chinese economy was considered the major driving force of this growth. In 2002, it scored record high growth of 8%, and 7.8% in 2003, the World Bank reports.

Vietnam and Thailand are following China's example and setting new records. Surprisingly, the economies of the US and Japan (considered Asia's "patient" for many years) suddenly went up again. The entire world economy is progressing thanks to the US and Japan's growth, the WB believes.

Notably, high-tech sectors are seeing the most rapid growth in the region. The economic committee - the analytical and research group of the organisation - has submitted its traditional review of the situation in the region. Its sensational conclusion is that the more advanced the country is in "sectors of knowledge" - computer science, communications, applied research, - the better economic performance it has.

University and corporate science, sales and purchase of information and intellectual property, the use of knowledge in business - all this makes up the system that the committee called "production of knowledge". And this apparently can change the fates of entire countries and boost the development of the entire region.

Russia has already presented its new technologies at the APEC forum, including micro-satellite and indirect medical diagnostics. Russia is a point of growth in the APEC zone. The fact that its economic growth is expected to hit the 6% mark by the end of the year places it in the leading position in the region. Thanks to its potential of "the economy of knowledge", Russia can hope to sustain this growth.