Asia Insights Weekly: The World's Largest Potential Free Market

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January 8, 2013       Your Weekly Update from The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center Unleashing the Market in India By Laveesh Bhandari, Jeremy Carl, Bibek Debroy, Michelle Kaffenberger, Pravakar Sahoo, and Derek Scissors The movements of goods, services, capital, and labor between India and the U.S. are inadequate for two such large economies. There are also disputes about the movement of information, in the form of intellectual property. That is why India is not yet shining in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. The two national governments are principally responsible for this failure. A smaller role for them and a larger one for companies and individual states in both countries, based on the principle of free and open exchange, would transform the bilateral relationship and much of the rest of the world. Even if a sound bilateral investment treaty (BIT) is eventually achieved, progress should not wait. There is much to be gained for India and the U.S. in the interim. Moreover, it is far more likely that action by individuals, companies, and states entirely outside the BIT process will eventually generate a good BIT than that a good BIT will emerge from bilateral talks. These outside actions should start immediately. What else can the U.S. do to improve this relationship? Read more in this special report. >>

Key Asian Indicators: A Book of Charts The 2012 version is now available! Follow the link below to access this helpful resource and get information on everything Asia-trends on political/security issues, data on Asia's fastest growing economies, Asia's top investors in the U.S. economy, and the real numbers on who owns the most U.S. federal debt. See the Full Book of Charts China Global Investment Tracker: 2012 China's investment overseas is increasingly important to the United States and the international community. The China Global Investment Tracker created by The Heritage Foundation is the only publicly available, comprehensive dataset of large Chinese investments and contracts worldwide beyond Treasury bonds. Details are available for almost 500 attempted transactions -- failed and successful -- over $100 million in all industries, including energy, mining, transportation and banking. Download the Dataset Now

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