Asia's big economies like China and India can contribute a lot to tackle international financial crisis, an expert from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

Asia countries' economy still rely on the United States, Europe and Japan, underlined Lee Jong-wha, chief of the Office of Regional Economic Integration of ADB.

For these reasons, "Asian economies would be affected by the current international financial crisis, but big economies like China and India would maintain their growth," he added.

He predicted that China's economic growth would slow down, from11 percent in recent years to 9 percent in 2009, and India to 7 percent next year. "The Chinese would be disappointed by these figures, but they are still a very high growth rate," he said.

According to him, China still has a large space to obtain a rapid growth, "if it turns to the domestic side."

"The Chinese authorities are doing in the right sense, with positive ness and wisdom. And thus will help to overcome the international financial crisis," he said.

Ministers, senior financial officials and representatives of international organizations gather here on November 2-6 for the 15th Finance Ministerial Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2008)