IMF chief: Closing three gaps will help Asia's economic openness

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Addressing the annual Boao Forum in south China's Hainan Province on Tuesday, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde identified three "gaps" that needed to be closed to help Asia's economies continue to open up.

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The first gap according to Lagarde, is “the digital gap applied to finance.” “Asia relative to the rest of the world has probably the smallest digital gap, yet deciding to close that gap in particular in favor of women.”

Lagarde noted that if Asian countries were to close the gap between the least integrated Asian countries to reach the average of the others, it could add one full percentage of GDP on per capita bases.

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The second is the “regulatory gap.” Lagarde said that though fin-tech is blossoming in Asia, its the same industry that's "disclosing regulatory gaps which if not closed, both domestically and on the cross-border bases, can actually lead to system risks.” She warned that guarding against this would help Asian economies “transform safely and be more inclusive.”

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The third is the “innovation gap” according to Lagarde. Citing recent IMF research, Lagarde stated that there's an interesting relationship between how "trade actually facilitates the sharing of technology."