Ten years after Asia's financial crisis it is the most dynamic region in the global economy, observed David Burton, the IMF's director for Asia and the Pacific, in a speech in Singapore.

"The central feature of the Asian crisis was a sudden reversal of investor sentiment and international capital flows," he said. "The roots of the crisis, however, were in financial and corporate sector weaknesses not fully apparent at the time."

A decade later, however: "Rather than withdraw from globalization