Commentary: Six influential Asians changing their part of the world
Bloomberg News
April 21, 2005
William Pesek Jr.

The Time magazine list of the 100 most influential people in the world includes some worthy Asian picks. Manmohan Singh, the Indian economist who became prime minister, is on it, and for good reason. The same goes for President Hu Jintao of China. The men are charged with leading a third of humanity into the global economy, with all its benefits and risks.
 
Visionaries like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and the Dalai Lama are there, as is one known for the opposite quality: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian is on the list, and so are business magnates like Lee Kun Hee of Samsung Electronics. Celebrated Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi are there, too.
 
Yet the Time 2005 list is equally noteworthy for the Asians it overlooked. Admittedly, it is quite a task picking 100 people out of the billions of possibilities, and space is an issue in any publication. While many come to mind, here are six Asians to keep an eye on in the year ahead.

Haruhiko Kuroda, head of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank. The former Japanese vice finance minister used to spend his time manipulating the global foreign exchange markets. Now his task is to help more people in the most populous region out of poverty and work to make Asian markets world class.
 
Kuroda, 60, is at the center of the push to create deeper Asian bond markets. In the short run, that will help Asia hang on to more of the cash it parks in U.S. Treasuries. In the long run, it will move Asia closer to creating its own single currency. Talk about changing the world as we know it.

Takafumi Horie, founder of the Japanese Internet portal Livedoor. Single-handedly, the 32-year-old has shaken up Japan's clubby business culture as never before with his attempted hostile takeover of Nippon Broadcasting System. His punk rock instinct for questioning the establishment sent shock waves though Tokyo.
 
While Horie backed down, reaching an alliance with Fuji Television Network, he set off an entrepreneurial bomb in an economy badly in need of ground-up innovation. There is no doubt that scores of Horie wannabes are perched before laptops wondering how they, too, can take on Japan Inc.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of Indonesia. Few would envy running the fourth most populous nation at a time when more than half of its 238 million people live on less $2 a day and rampant corruption keeps investors from entrusting capital to the economy. That Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population and the occasional terrorist attack by religious extremists hardly simplifies things for its first directly elected president.
 
Yet Yudhoyono, 55, seems to be just what Indonesia needs. The former general promises to clean things up and tend to a long neglected and highly indebted economy. Indonesia is just too populous to fail as an economy. Markets from New York to Tokyo have much riding on a Yudhoyono success.

Mechai Viravaidya, Thai AIDS activist. Few may aspire to see their name become slang for "condom." Mechai, 64, could not be happier when he hears young Thais asking for "mechais" at the local drugstore.
 
Africa is the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS problem. Scientists believe Asia, a region far more connected to the global economy, will be the center of a HIV/AIDS crisis in the next 10 to 12 years. The world needs more people like Mechai who are not afraid to take on governments and religious groups who think abstinence alone will stop AIDS.

BoA, omnipresent South Korean pop star. Asia has never been more connected economically. Trade is thriving and helping to float most boats. Far from keeping pace, political ties are moving in the other direction amid disagreements over World War II.
 
Oddly, the most promising connection between Japanese and Koreans is entertainment. Cultural exports are thriving. For all of Korea's challenges, its films, musicians and celebrities are taking Asia, if not the world, by storm and creating a lucrative industry for cultural exports.
 
The economic effects are multiplying and offering a ray of sunshine for the No. 3 economy in Asia that has grown sluggishly in recent years. And BoA, 18, has much to do with the trend. Her face is popping up on billboards throughout Asia. She may just be this region's global face in the years ahead.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the 65-year-old prime minister of Malaysia. In modern-day Malaysia, miniskirts exist next to women in Muslim head scarves. Decadent night life unfolds down the street from opulent mosques and hypermodern skyscrapers. It is a country that tests the limits of coexistence between the modern world and traditional Islam.
 
The world has much riding on Abdullah's ability to maintain peace and prosperity among his nation's 24 million people. Markets, too, have a lot riding on him, because Abdullah wants to turn Kuala Lumpur into a global financial hub. When you consider the growth of Islamic finance, Malaysia has a better shot at succeeding than many may appreciate.
 
At the same time, Abdullah, like his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, is a leading voice in the search for a more equitable and balanced global economic and financial system. His ideas on how to spread prosperity to the poor as well as the rich are likely to be among the most interesting anywhere.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune