国际英语新闻:Asian economies faced with key challenges in next decade: Australian economist

"Catching the demographic dividend is a challenge itself," Gruen said.

He called on governments to take measures to close gender cap as a way to secure strong medium-term growth.

The third challenge is managing complex and potentially freud process of capital account and financial market liberalization.

"Possibly even more significant than regional integration on trade and more risky than managing changing demographic profiles is handling the opening of the region to freer flow of capital without overwhelming what in most Asian economies have been sheltered financial markets," he said.

For example, the financial opening in China represents huge opportunities but also significant risks. Despite China having the second largest economy in the world, accounting for 15 percent of the world's output at purchasing power parity, the Renminbi accounts for only 2 percent of the world's foreign exchange turnover. China's stock markets account for 7 percent of the world 's stock market capitalization and China's bond market accounts for 5 percent of global bond outstanding.

"This means China could grow very fast even when it does open up, but opening also means exposing the domestic financial system to outside market forces in a way that China hasn't experienced before," Gruen said.

"A cautious measure and prudent integration may be preferable in gaining reforms."

The fourth is avoiding catastrophic environmental harm including dealing with climate change in longer term.

Talking about China, Gruen quoted that of the world's 20 most polluted cities, 16 are in China. Half of the Yellow River is biologically dead. And only 2 percent of urban citizens in China are breathing clean air by EU standard.

Gruen said environmental issue has imposed real constraints on not only the quality of Chinese people's life but also their productivity and live expectancy.