For the previous twenty years, China’s rise appeared unstoppable. Its huge productive capability forged such a shadow over Asia that many world chief executives got here to see the area as two distinct entities: China, and all the pieces else.

Covid modified that. Not in a single day. But greater than a yr on from its belated determination to open its borders and let the world again in, China is in a surprisingly unsure place. While removed from enfeebled, its economic system is actually sclerotic. Many investors continue to give it a wide berth.

Instead, world capital is flowing elsewhere within the area. Funds have fallen again in love with Japan. Corporates are focusing on resource-rich Indonesia. But no Asia market is sort of as ascendant in 2024 as India.

During a latest dialog with DBS chief govt Piyush Gupta, the speak turned to the topic of progress and alternative. More particularly: what single market most excited the person who engineered the rise of Singapore’s largest and most outward-facing lender.

Until very just lately, Gupta would absolutely have led with the People’s Republic, and for good motive. For a lot of the previous decade “China was keeping us afloat, they kept us going,” he tells Euromoney.

That’s