The region now faces the difficult, fundamental challenge of sustaining growth beyond the crisis into the medium and long term. For decades prior to the crisis, Asia was the world’s fastest growing economic region; this strong, sustained performance transformed it from a group of typical developing countries into the third center of gravity of the world economy along with the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). The question remains, will Asia be able to return to its high-growth trajectory once the global crisis abates?