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The benefits of investing in Asia are becoming clearer, according to Henderson TR Pacific manager Andrew Beal, as the short-term prospects in western markets remain volatile and doubts over the recent market continue.

Mr Beal said the ever-changing investment landscape in Asia was currently providing fund managers with a number of investment opportunities and investors the chance to diversify into a region with good growth prospects.

"The region always offers new opportunities, new companies to invest in," he said. "If you get invested early, over time, you generate very attractive returns."

The lack of correlation between problems in the financial sector in the western economies and the robust nature of Asian finances had helped make the companies in the region more attractive, Mr Beal said.

"Asia had none of the the problems the west had. It has held relatively low corporate debt and low government debt."

Mr Beal said a number of trusts in the sector had benefited over the last few months from the uplift in markets, particularly in China, where governmental stimulus packages were helping to fuel growth.

"In Asia, companies have started from a very different position," he said. "The fiscal and monetary policy has been much more effective in getting the economy driving."

But Mr Beal warned that one of the main challenges Asian economies would face was developing and stimulating domestic demand, as exports to western economies continued to slow.

He said there were other investment options outside China, including Malaysia and India, where prospects were also attractive. Recent elections in India, he added, have given the ruling party a workable majority for the first time in years, allowing it to plough ahead with new economic policies.

Chinese investment in other Asian countries is also helping to buoy the region and bring greater stability, he said.

"The Chinese are very keen to invest in Taiwanese companies, which is largely a political project to get closer to Taiwan."

Frontier markets in the region are also starting to emerge, Mr Beal said, highlighting the growing company registrations in Vietnam.

In the future, opportunities in other countries could emerge, such as Pakistan, although he said many countries still remain off the investment radar due to political instability. Mr Beal warned that internal unrest and political instability would need to be addressed before Pakistan became a viable option for investors.

According to the latest figures from the AIC, trusts in its Asia Pacific ex Japan sector are currently trading on an average discount of 5.6 per cent - among the lowest of the investment trust sector average discounts.