Are global financial institutions proving to be defunked in the face of inflation and a global food crisis, and is it up to Asia as the emerging center of world power to take the lead in finding solutions? Business leaders who met at the annual World Economic Forum on East Asia, a high-profile gathering of business and government leaders, in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week seem to think so.

“Global institutions are inadequate. They are not responding to global challenges,” Yashwant Sinha, a former finance minister of India said while citing record-high crude oil prices. Rapid increases in the price of rice and other agriculture products have set off riots and protests from Africa to Asia and elevated fears of a global food crisis, reported the International Herald Tribune.

“I would say that this is where there is an opportunity for Asia,” said Sinha, who is now a member of the Indian Parliament. “There are a whole host of things that Asian nations can do together. We must start writing the rules of the game.”

Asian countries must help each other in dealing with crises because the United States can no longer be expected to be “the locomotive of the global economy,” said Yoshimi Watanabe, the Japanese minister of financial services and administrative reforms. “The Asian countries are in the same boat, we share the same destiny,” he said.

Asia, led by India and China, will define the global economy in the future, thanks to its demand for consumer goods, investment opportunities and rapidly growing economies, those attending the forum were told.

“The shift in the economy around the world has been dramatic,” Peter Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s, said before the opening of the conference.