Hawaii urged to prepare for region’s growth

Hawaii should watch evolving patterns of growth in the Asia-Pacific region because they hold near- and long-term implications for tourism and for the broader economy, according to the Asia-Pacific Forecast prepared by UHERO, the economic research organization at the University of Hawaii, and an international team of scholars.

The report, which was released for the first time today, comes on the heels of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings that brought leaders from 21 economies to Honolulu to focus on issues of economic importance to the region. Critics questioned the event’s ability to make Hawaii the crossroads of the Asia-Pacific, but the event renewed community interest in the possibility.

While the region holds promise for Hawaii, UHERO’s report cautioned that in the near term nearly all its economies will see further slowing due to struggling European and other Western economies.

UHERO has projected that real gross domestic product growth rates for 2012 will fall in Canada, Southeast Asia, China and South Korea. GDP rates will grow in Japan and Australia in 2012 but will remain flat in the U.S., according to UHERO.

By 2013, UHERO expects GDP will grow in the U.S., South Korea, Canada and Southeast Asia. GDP rates in 2013 are expected to fall in Japan, Australia and China, UHERO said.

Since GDP equates to the total market value of all final goods and services that a country produces, essentially it is used to measure wealth.

Nations with the biggest GDP often have the healthiest economies and the most clout.

Still, UHERO’s report encouraged Hawaii leaders to avoid rushing to pick economic winners and urged them to focus "on improving the basic infrastructure — physical, human, and policy — that will position our citizens and businesses for success, wherever new opportunities present themselves."

Improving Hawaii and adjusting to the new tastes of older and wealthier Asia-Pacific travelers will better the state’s chance of capitalizing on longer-term potential from the region, the report said.