The Asian region has 59 percent of the world's population, accounts for 29 percent of the world's economy, and has 256 percent of the telephone lines. More than 90 percent of the population of the Asia Pacific live in lower income economies. China and india account for just 12 percent of the wealth and telephone lines, but have two-thirds of the region's population. Despite widespread poverty in poorer countries, the economic growth rate in asia has surpassed other industrialized as well as developing regions. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has a higher per capita GNP and volume of exports than eastern Europe~3. Main lien growth has averaged 8 percent per year, and amogn the Dynamic Asian Economies or dragons (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) recent main line growth has been twice this rate~4. See Table 1.
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