We will not up stumps at the first sign of trouble. We have demonstrated in the White Paper that we take a longer term perspective of where our interests lie. Our judgement is that East Asia will grow substantially over the next fifteen years and that our involvement with East Asian countries will be vital to our future. Let me therefore stress that Australia has confidence in the fundamentals of the region. Most of South East Asian countries maintain sound fiscal positions, with a number running budget surpluses last year.
Regional economies continue to maintain high domestic savings rates.
Moreover, the silver lining of the recent currency adjustments is that the region's exports are now all the more competitive. Moreover, World Bank and IMF forecasts still have the economies of East Asia outperforming OECD economies for the foreseeable future, with the IMF commenting last week that the selling of Asian currencies had gone too far. We want to build on our existing strong relationships and the growing commercial ties which flow from them. It was just over a year ago that I made my first official visit to Vietnam as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. This is a significant milestone in a bilateral relationship that is rapidly developing into a mature partnership.