In light of Asia's growing economic strength is the increasing prominence of Asian currencies, Alessandro Magnoli Bocchi, chief economist, Asiya Investments, said recently at the World Economic Forum Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia 2012 held in Istanbul. As a specialist on the emerging Asian economies, Bocchi focused on highlighting the growing importance and prospects for the Asian economies and the increasingly significant role they will play in coming years in international monetary issues. Addressing delegates at the Forum, Bocchi said "over the next decades, the centrality of the US dollar in the global monetary system will be gradually re-appraised. The alternative to date has increasingly been the euro. However, with the economic turmoil in Europe there has been a temporary pause in the shift from US dollars to euros - although together they still account for nearly 90 percent of the foreign exchange reserves held by central banks and governments." He further said "over the next five years, Asia - more established as a new world power - will have to accept greater monetary responsibilities. The Chinese yuan renminbi (RMB) will incrementally be accepted in trade settlements and outbound investments and, if China were to successfully liberalize its capital account and internationalize the RMB, it would come to play an increasingly pivotal role in the future international economy." He continued: "Given the current global economic realities - including the longer term impact of the eurozone crisis and the US dollar's continued downward trend against other major currencies – shifts are inevitable in the longer term. Managing a multi-polar global economy in the future, however, will present serious challenges unlikely to be solved with local policies. Firstly, the G8 needs to allow a change in the geopolitical monetary hierarchy. Not a frictionless task. In turn, Asia needs to cooperate in global currency management, promote regional integration, and deepen its domestic bond markets." The session further highlighted a number of specific scenarios for the US Dollar, the Euro and its survival, and the future in the near and longer term for the Yuan relative to Asia's continued economic growth. Asiya Investments is the only GCC based investment firm focussed solely on investing in the public and private equity markets across emerging Asia. The firm also provides a full range of advisory services to cater to capital flows between the Middle East and emerging Asian countries (ex. Japan), which currently in 2012 – given the global slowdown (and recession in Japan in 2011 and in Europe in 2012) – account for nearly 50 percent of global growth in real terms.
