This means that many industries in China have lost their competitiveness, and that the Chinese economy's future growth has to come from innovation and productivity gains, rather than low-wage labor. Bangladesh, for example, has already begun to take advantage of China's withdrawal from the low-end segment of the garment market. Its production and exports have been rising rapidly, and today Bangladesh is the world's second-largest garment exporter (after China). So it's not surprising that Bangladesh and Vietnam are now two of the region's fastest-growing economies.

But the gains to be had from China's slowdown are not automatic. Because so many other countries are vying to pick up the global market share that China is shedding, the region's developing economies need to pursue a host of reforms and to invest in power, transport and urban infrastructure to make their overall investment climate competitive.

The author is chief economist at the Asian Development Bank and the head of its Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department.

Project Syndicate