Bridging the gap

Asia's regional commodity exchanges are expanding but the emergence of an Asian exchange champion to challenge Western platforms looks a long way off. Georgina Lee reports

The global economic slowdown is hurting heavy industry and manufacturers around the world. But a slew of government-backed capital expenditure programmes on infrastructure projects in Asia is resuscitating the region's voracious demand for raw materials. And this new demand for commodities comes on top of an annual $180 billion spent on infrastructure projects in Asia - an amount required annually just to cope with infrastructure needs to support the region's population growth, according to