ADB sees Hong Kong incomes leading the way as global trade focus switches to

Average incomes in Hong Kong are set to surpass those in the United States, according to a study by the Asian Development Bank.

During the next 25 years, incomes in Hong Kong would rise more than 16 per cent above those in the US and would be the highest of the emerging east Asian nations, the report said. They already were higher than per capita incomes in Britain and Australia.

By 2020, Singaporean incomes are expected to be about 7 per cent higher than those in the US, and Taiwan and Korea are expected to make substantial gains.

The report, Emerging Asia: Changes and Challenges, was released at the ADB's 30th annual conference here. It said that as Asian economies continued to catch up, growth rates would slow. But it said robust growth would continue, especially in South Asia, for the next three decades.

Growth rates in East Asia were likely to slow, but a Soviet Union-style collapse was unlikely.

'Continued rapid growth in Asia will challenge the rest of the world as the balance of economic activity increasingly shifts towards Asia,' the report said.

'Trade flows between Asia and the rest of the world will increase rapidly, posing significant, but manageable, shifts of employment and production within advanced economies.' The best way to manage economic pressures would be for all major economies to maintain flexibility in their domestic markets, it said.