Prepare to profit from Asia's wave of ‘soft power’

The West’s cultural and commercial domination is waning in Asia. A wave of ‘soft power’ is sweeping across the continent as it turns to home-grown talent. That will throw up tremendous opportunities for investors to profit, says Lars Henriksson.

This week, most of the Asian markets are closed for Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. It's the Year of the Snake and an important one for China. Last year, the country outgrew the US to become the world's largest trading country (as defined by the sum of exports and imports of goods). But China is in the midst of a very painful episode in its history. The economy has recently slowed to its slowest pace in two and a half years. And that is likely to continue.

China suffers from serious bottlenecks, including lofty property prices, rising wages and higher logistics costs due to the big push to move manufacturing to the hinterland (the 'Go West' policy). The results are rising inflation and a marked slowdown in foreign direct investments (which in fact peaked in August 2011).

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Lars is an emerging-markets expert, with many years of 'on the ground' experience hunting down profit opportunities in Asia. Lars spent ten years living in Malaysia and Thailand, seeking out strategic opportunities, before moving to London to manage the Oracle Asia Absolute Fund. In short, Lars has real knowledge of where the opportunities in Asia are.