Delegates to the World Economic Forum on East Asia were told complacency had set in after years of uninterrupted global growth.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's Second Minister for Finance, warned financial contagion would hit when least expected and bring about a "vicious" aftermath.

"You can't predict when it's going to come," he said, 10 years after a financial crisis shook the region's economies.

Thailand Minister of Finance Chalongphob Sussangkarn said that in the absence of any self-correcting mechanism to deal with a global economic imbalance, there was a danger of "a huge amount of economic chaos in the world."

The global imbalances traditionally refer to the twin US budget and current account deficits, the accumulation of huge foreign currency reserves by Asian central banks and divergent growth rates in the world's major economies.

Despite its economic success, Asia is still perceived by the international community as lacking the common ground that would allow it to tackle global challenges, Carlos Ghosn, president and chief executive of carmakers Renault and Nissan, told reporters.

"Today there is a perception that when you take Japan, China, India, (South) Korea, Southeast Asia, the common things shared by the different countries are not substantial enough," Ghosn said at the start of the two-day forum attended by about 300 delegates.

"People would like to know how all these countries are going to be able to establish one agenda, one common agenda, particularly to address some of the common concerns that the world has," he said.

In her opening address, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said the region had a number of able leaders as well as institutions such as the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to give it direction.

"The real issue is the rapid economic rise of the region at a time when the global order has undergone enormous swings," she said, citing the rise of China and India as well as the influence of "the global war on terrorism" on the US role in the world.

"The US is the major political and military player. It has been preoccupied in the Middle East, in Iraq, in other crisis areas. This has left the perception of a leadership deficit in Asia," she said.

China and Japan had "stepped up their game," notably over the crisis on the Korean peninsula, she said.

"Yet this is the interim game: The real issue is how the region will handle the next 20 or 40 years," Arroyo said, calling for Japan to play a leading role in promoting the integration and security of East Asia.

Arroyo said the region faced a series of contradictions, including increased integration and prosperity that existed alongside the likelihood of greater income disparity.

"Balancing these contradictions will be the test of leadership in the region," she said.

Other delegates also cited income disparities and said key problems faced by the world's fastest growing region included urban congestion, poor education and inadequate infrastructure.