Mumbai: Business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia have cautioned the Asian economies against becoming complacent over issues like growing financial pressures, climate change and income disparities even as they increasingly outperform the West.

Delegates at the WEF on East Asia, which began in Singapore on June 24, think that there could be new threats to the region''s success ranging from terrorism and trade protectionism to climate change and natural disasters.

Complacency had set in after years of uninterrupted global growth and there was no evidence that a self-correcting mechanism was in place to avert a major shock, speakers told delegates to the two-day forum.

"It''s precisely because everyone''s feeling so good that we know something''s coming," Tharman Shanmugaratnam, minister of education, member of the board of directors, Monetary Authority of Singapore, told WEF participants.

"You can''t predict when it''s going to come. You can''t predict the scale, but there''s a feeling that when it comes, it''s going to be a pretty large impact and going to be very difficult to manage," he said.

Thailand''s finance minister Chalongphob Sussangkarn said Asia''s vast savings and trade surplus, juxtaposed with immense deficits in the United States , had created a global imbalance that had no apparent remedy.

Imbalances include the US budget and current account deficits, the accumulation of $2.7 trillion of foreign currency reserves by Asian central banks and divergent growth rates in the world''s major economies. Leading financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, have warned that the imbalances could undermine global economic growth and financial stability.

"It seems like East Asia is simply accumulating deficits from the US … East Asia does have a major role to play in shaping the direction of the global financial system," Chalongphob said.

"We''re in a situation where there''s no real correction mechanism, and we''re hoping one day that the market will perform the correction," Chalongphob said, adding, "If you let the market correct the mechanism, it will snap and bring about a huge amount of economic chaos."

Nearly 300 business leaders, politicians and public figures from 26 countries are attending the World Economic Forum on East Asia to discuss the region''s agenda under the theme "The Leadership Imperative for an Asian Century." The two-day meeting is being organised in partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).