Trade rule transparency, political stability are needed for progress

Weak governance structures, particularly across developing Asia, are creating bumps along the road to fast economic growth.

While there has been some progress, both in public and corporate governance, this progress has been spotty. Over the past couple of decades, there have been visible slides in the quality of governance across Asia, often linked to one crisis or another. The quality of governance dropped in 1997 during the Asian financial crisis and again in 2008 during the global financial crisis.