Global alternative investment management firm MR Capital Management Ltd. is focusing its funds to the Asian economies in a major shift of its traditional portfolio because of the improved industrial activities in Asia and the obvious growth slowdown in developed countries of the west.

Mohannad Al-Rashoudi, fund manager of MR Capital's Global Consumer Loyalty fund, is particularly interested in diverting a significant amount of MR Capital's portfolio into South East Asia.

"Our screening unintentionally takes us to Southeast Asia," says Al-Rashoudi." Although we mainly focus on company fundamental analysis, we are happy to land in high labor productivity regions, large consumer bases, and unsaturated markets for our durable and cyclical selections. Generally, we prefer to be in industrial-focused economies over service based."

Indeed Southeast Asia is seen to provide a major boost to the global economy amidst the looming threat of a new round of recession coming from the worsening European debt crisis. Intra-trade between members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grew to $475 billion (US$470 billion) in 2008, $380 billion (US$376.2 billion) in 2009 and $525 billion (US$519.7 billion) in 2010. ASEAN's total trade totalled 25 percent of the world's total amounting to $2.06 trillion (US$2.04 trillion) last year.

ASEAN is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Even big names in the hedge fund industry is betting huge in Asia and said that emerging economies in the region would attract majority of investments in the near-term. Joe Taussig, founder of Taussig Capital, maintained that emerging hedge fund managers have traditionally outperformed their Western counterparts.

Only recently, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde underscored the significance of Asia and China in the global economic recovery. She said that "the rise of Asia in the global economy is really the defining economic success story of modern times. And so today, it is no surprise that Asia is propelling the global recovery."

While the Western markets, especially the U.S., remain important, the current economic trend is proving the emergence of Asia as a very important market. Within the next decade, the Chinese economy is foreseen to eclipse the U.S., and some analysts are also predicting India would outrun China in the future. In contrast, the Western economies are faced with debt and job issues that could threaten its market dominance in the long-term.

Presenting his firm's macro-level views of the global economies, Al-Rashoudi explained that countries should be looked at as companies in order to better understand their fundamentals. "We keep in mind that macro effects on investment strategies are in an ever increasing phase. It is generally perceived that investment strategies should be adjusted to interpret conflicts, interventions, and a possible long term low liquidity environment. We allocate the solution for such an environment by turning back to the employment of the inefficient market strategies with stress on a combined equity style of investment" he said.