During the Asian financial crisis about a little bit more than a decade ago, the word Asian Capitalism was associated with everything wrong: nepotism, lack of transparency, over and mis-investments from groundless optimism, excessive government control and protection, etc, etc, etc. We were told to learn from the best practices of the West.

We know what happened afterward. All-goodness and All-mighty Western countries caused the recent global economic crisis. Surprisingly, Asian countries were least hit by the crisis. In fact global economy is relying heavily on the resiliency of Asian economy for the early recovery from the crisis.

Students from many Asian countries are met in GPAC 2010 Hanoi to find answers to various economic and social issues. The long cherished western text book solutions may not be the answers. They may have to find Asian answers. With such diversity in the size of country and in the level of economic development, complete agreement among Asian countries may not be a feasible task. But the simple fact that they sit together to seek for a common answer by itself is a big step forward. Sometimes an agreement to disagree is an agreement.

This year, we are very grateful that Vietnam National University had provided such a wonderful platform to exchange various ideas. Please take the GPAC opportunity also to make foreign friends and learn more about the people and culture of Vietnam.