The rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer in Asia/Pacific: as Senior Adviser and Head of Special Unit for Countries with Special Needs, UNESCAP, Raj Kumar believes the divide between rich and poor in Asia is growing out of control. He sees Asia-Pacific emerging as a 4-tier region, with disparities widening rather than reducing, and he's concerned. Mr Kumar shares his thoughts with Business Asia magazine.

Since the advent of globalization, the Asia-Pacific region has made striking progress in both the economic and social spheres. On average, in the past two decades, the performance of Asia-Pacific has been far above the other regions of the world. However, when a comparison is made within and across the Asia-Pacific region, large disparities can be found on both the economic and social fronts.

It is estimated that the economic disparity, as measured by real per capita income, could increase from 9 times in 2005 to 71 times in 2015 between the best and the worst performing nations of the Asia-Pacific region. With this large disparity, the impressive performance of Asia-Pacific may not be sustainable in the long-run. And, according to Mr. Kumar, "these disparities may lead to instability and could be a breeding ground for conflict."

Given the dynamism and resilience of the Asia-Pacific region, as observed during the Asian financial crisis of late 1990s, a recent study noted that through regional cooperation and South-South collaboration this region has the capacity to address the challenges of prevailing socioeconomic disparities within and across the region.

In light of the above, various possible cooperation mechanisms are currently being explored to address the disparity issues. The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the commitments of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Round of Trade negotiations are some of the international initiatives to promote more inclusive development, but there are no guarantees that they will deliver a better distribution of economic and social benefits. In the current fuel and food crisis, the poorest countries are the hardest hit.

"This region has the largest rate of savings and foreign exchange reserves in the world, also the skills, know-how and development experience to reduce these imbalances, but the richer countries are not doing enough in their own backyard," Mr. Kumar says.

Several options have been submitted recently to the Heads of Sub-Regional Organizations for Asia-Pacific (RCFAP) for consideration, with the key underlying goal of enhancing and sustaining socioeconomic growth and reducing disparities among the member countries of the Asia-Pacific region through regional cooperation.

Only time will tell if any of these has a chance of being successful.

Tier 1: The developed countries--Australia, NZ, Japan, Singapore, Hongkong, China, Taipeh, China, Republic of Korea

Tier 2; The large fast growing economies: India and China, which are emerging as the key drivers of the region and globally

Tier 3; Middle income ; Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Azerbaijan, and we can also include Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, in this group though the gap with the others is still large

Tier 4 : the least developed, the landlocked and small island economies which form the largest group and we can also include DPRK here

This state of affairs of growing disparities is not likely guarantee social and political stability, nor sustain the region as an economic powerhouse in spite of the region having the fastest economic growth rates in the world today.

When I have the time, I would like to do further research on this Asia-Pacific divide.... indeed there is enough material for a book!