In this Quarterly, we break with past issues and split it into two sections: the usual short-term cyclical outlook (presented on the 'flip side' of this booklet) and a longer-term 'structural' picture of what Asia will look like in the year 2020 presented below. The nine-year study came as a request back in June from our Vickers equities team, who wanted to know, among other things, what valuations might look like in 2020.

The request seemed more than timely. After all, Asia had just emerged from the global financial crisis and, rather than being held back by a soporific US, EU and Japan as most predicted, was instead running ahead at double-digit rates of growth and, in the process, driving whatever growth was taking place in the rest of the world as well. Roles had reversed.

For most, this answered once and for all the question of whether Asia had the power - the domestic demand actually - to drive its own growth. It did. Or whether it was relying on the US to drive its growth in a 'globally imbalanced' manner. It wasn't. The world had not 'decoupled' to use that unhelpful word - indeed it was more intertwined than ever before. But Asia had driven its own recovery and far more. And with little or no help from the US/G3.

A couple of numbers may help to see this. By mid-2011, GDP in the Asia-10 was 10% to 30% higher than in 2Q08 just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In the US, output had not yet returned to square one. Since March 2010, Asian central banks have raised interest rates (or tightened currency regimes) 47 times. In the US, the Fed gave us QE2 and is now contemplating a QE3.

So, the Vickers guys and gals wondered, if Asia could do all this in 2011, what might it be doing in 2020? A good question, because it begs many others. What might valuations be then? Which industries should investors be investing in? Which companies?

David Fuller's view This far-sighted report is helpful at a time when markets have been exceptionally volatile, uncertainty high and the west's debt problems have dominated headlines.

Not having seen the DBS report before this afternoon, I have only had a chance to skim read it so far. However, I have seen enough to commend it to you for both analysis and graphics. They expect India to achieve the highest average growth rate at 8.5%, followed by Indonesia at 7.5%.

Bear markets are stressful and inevitably produce some apocalyptic forecasts, as we have seen before. We also know that they are resets, providing the best buying opportunities. Remember, wealth is created in down markets and realised in up markets.

Asia has been an overweight in my personal long-term investment portfolio since 2Q 2003 and I may add to my holdings in the event of further weakness.