Economist hails new rise of Asia
( 2002-05-23 11:04 ) (1 )

One of the greatest feats in modern history is the rise of Asia, a Nobel prize-winning economist told the World-Famous Scientists Forum in Nanjing on Tuesday.

Robert A Mundell, a well-known professor at New York's Columbia University, said: "Asia is becoming a big area, a big power, a threatening position, and an equal area to Europe in economic development."

He also predicted that China's gross domestic product would reach US$4 trillion by 2020 and US$8 trillion by 2040, equal to the predicted figures for Japan at the same time.

Mundell had been invited by Nanjing University, in East China's Jiangsu Province, to attend the opening ceremony of the forum which started on Tuesday and will end on Saturday.

The forum's main theme is science and social progress. The forum is regarded as the most important activity of Nanjing University's centennial celebrations.

The forum is divided into 17 sections, including Frontiers of Astronomy in the 21st Century, Advanced Software Technology, 21st-Century Life-Science Forums, Challenges of Earth Sciences in the New Millennium, Progress in Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and Globalization and Human Civilization.

Including Mundell, five Nobel prize-winners have been invited to deliver speeches to the forum. The other four are A. Michael Spence, Nobel laureate in economic science and professor emeritus of management at Stanford University; Henry Taube, Nobel laureate in chemistry; Samuel C. C. Ting, Nobel laureate in physics and professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and United States economist Lawrence R. Klein, Nobel laureate in economics.

Hundreds of world-famous scientists and academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering are also attending the forum.