Today, Asia represents one of the most dynamic and important marketplaces for defence equipment and associated services in the world. This is hardly a surprise when you consider the countries that are in Asia, emerging superpowers such as China and India and economic giants such as the Republic of Korea and Japan to name but a few. Other factors also conspire to keep Asia as a major defence market
place, principally economic growth. Asian countries have emerged rapidly from the global economic downturn, levels of government debt are low in comparison to other parts of the world and this added to growing economies equals fewer public spending limitations. Unlike in Europe where the indebted nature of national economies is leading to signiá¼€cant cuts in defence ex-penditure, Asia is experiencing rising defence budgets. Equally as important is the fact that the equipment being purchased by Asian states is becoming increasingly sophisticated. The end result is that the current state of the Asian defence marketplace can be characterised by an increasing trend towards acquiring state-of-the-art solutions. Bearing these facts in mind, it is inevitable that the importance of the Asian defence marketplace will grow. As far as AD&D is concerned, we will continue to cover the key defence developments in Asia and provide our readers with a magazine that meets their needs for unbiased and thoughtful commentary and analysis. We will also be expanding our web presence to further increase the depth of our coverage of regional defence issues.
