he two administrations that succeeded that of Ferdinand Marcos put the Philippines on the road to economic recovery and did their best to wipe out cronyism and corruption. The recently ousted Estrada regime went a long way to reversing their achievements. Maggie Ford reports on the chances of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo restoring reform and removing some of the deep-seated inequalities among Filipinos

Head of global markets, Deutsche Bank

Olds joined DBS as CEO in mid-1998, the First foreigner to run a Singapore bank. He has since been overseeing a complete overhaul of the bank’s business lines, transforming the institution from the last vestiges of its role as a traditional development bank lending at low margins, to one hoping to dominate at the retail and wholesale level, both in Singapore and Asia-wide.

Japan’s ministry of finance has lost face in the past decade as an arbiter of business development. The complexities of market growth have overwhelmed it, the collapse of a Liberal Democratic monopoly has removed its political underpinnings and scandalous revelations have been made about its corrupt practices. Now it has lost its traditional name. Despite the rise of rivals such as the Financial Services Agency and attempts by politicians to bypass MoF’s budget functions it’s far from clear who is in charge.

Having pursued a dirigiste approach to local non-financial companies in the 1990s, encouraging expansion abroad and regional leadership, the Singapore government has now turned its attention to the banks, urging liberalization, consolidation and outward-looking expansionism. It can't force the banks to do what it wants. But it gets very cross when they don't.

Japan's government debt is frighteningly large – larger by far than any other country's has ever been. Some Japanese economists contend that because the overwhelming bulk of it is held domestically there is no fundamental problem. Yet others, and most outside observers, reckon indebtedness cannot be overcome by growth or fiscal means and is a threat to worldwide stability.

Elizabeth Horn Ozden talks about technology trends and the Turkish retail market.

At worst, running a restructuring operation in Thailand can be a life-threatening métier, but its practitioners face a host of other obstacles, not least getting paid. Paradoxically, Thais are also seen as being too gentle and non-confrontational to buckle down seriously to the business of extracting debt from each other. On the buying side of the business, major players such as Lehman Brothers claim to be making a fair return on the distressed debt they have acquired.

Hong Kong companies have been rated top in no fewer than seven sectors in Euromoney’s annual survey of the best-managed companies in Asia. Chinese and Malaysian firms are highly rated in energy and entertainment. IT and technology companies headed several country polls last year and the Nasdaq effect and a slack period in the semiconductor market have not prevented analysts from continuing to rate them highly this year.