How BRIC growth is giving frontier markets a boost

ON ASIA

While Asia's frontier markets have been volatile, they are now poised to share in the growth enjoyed by their more developed neighbours - with a helping hand from those same countries, said Matthews Asia's Taizo Ishida (pictured).

There is no standard definition of a frontier market, as in spite of classification efforts by creators of equity benchmarks, the distinctions between ‘emerging’ and ‘frontier’ are nuanced. Asia’s frontier markets are generally considered to include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. These countries have lagged in development for a variety of reasons including war and civil strife, political instability, corruption, flawed economies and the vestiges of colonialism. In frontier markets, the legal and regulatory frame...