The Mundell, a magazine created by Nobel laureate and "father of Euro" Robert A. Mundell, unveiled on Dec. 15 its ranking of 2005 Asia top 500 enterprises. On the list are 112 Chinese companies, outnumbering the traditional "four Asian tigers" .

This is the first ever Mundell ranking on Asian enterprises, the sole standard, as is learned, being operating income, which includes figures of subsidiaries and consumption tax. An annual income of 2 billion US dollars is the minimum requirement, and that of the last one on the list is 2.78 billion dollars.

Only 80 businesses from South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the once glorious "four tigers", find themselves on the list. As for the reasons, Taiwan depends too much on IT in its industrial structure, relying on processing and peripherals instead of core technology; South Korea has a much more solid foundation for IT and a highly advanced heavy chemical industry, but it's held back by excessive government meddling in the past and its market is far less free than Taiwan's; Hong Kong mainly relies on financial service, real estate, trade and tourism, but its strength is significantly weakened by high housing price, wrong land policy and inadequate R&D input; while Singapore failed to reach its goal to develop its manufacturing into a pillar sector and build "made in Singapore" into a universally acknowledged brand.

Japan (276), China (112) and South Korea (31) take the first three places in their number of enterprises on the list. Among the 12 countries and regions ranked, the gap between China and Japan is apparent: Japan's Toyota, NTT and Hitachi grab the first three, while China's Sinopec (7), State Grid (9) and CNPC (10) are among the top ten. Japan dominates the list by 276 companies in total, or 55.20 percent, taking six seats in the top ten and 69 in the top 100.

The Japanese economy has entered a stage of stable recovery and sound development after ten years' difficult adjustment upon bubble burst, analysts say. Industrial products from Japan are of quite strong overall competitiveness on international market, of which independent innovation serves a fundamental guarantee to higher added value and sharper edge.

Another bright spot is the rise of India, who took 12 seats. Its top ten businesses are almost all engaged in heavy chemical industry: on top of oil-related products the last four places go to iron, steel and machinery.

According to the Wall Street Wire, in 2005 the world most attractive FDI destination is China, while India has also outpaced the United States to rank the second. The latest release by India-based Central Statistics Organization showed a record GDP growth of 8.4 percent in this country last year, an indication that India is already among the rank of world fastest moving economies.

India has kept on updating records: its export of iron& steel increased 65 percent and garment 22.6 percent: indexes pointing to a best period in 56 years. As the world second largest developing country, India has witnessed stable growth for seven years on end, and is expected to serve, together with China, as an engine driving forward Asian economy. India gives China pressure.

By People's Daily Online