Asia not as volatile as it seems

Jonathan Wu of Premium China Fund Management, who will be speaking at the Meet the Managers forum this month, said it's a common belief that Asia is the investment equivalent of the Wild West.

He said the attitude of many in the Western financial community is that investing Asia involves "high capital gains and you cop the volatility on the way through".

Wu said Asian sharemarkets are moderately more volatile than their Western counterparts, at around 20% volatilty compared to 16% in Australian equities.

However, he pointed to a way investors can get exposure to Asian economic growth without so much volatility: by investing in Asian debt markets.