According to global consultancy Grant Thornton’s International Business Report 2008 on emerging global markets, China, India and Russia have emerged as the top 3 most favored destinations for investment and development. These are followed by Mexico at fourth and Brazil at fifth place.

As per report, India and China, the world’s two fastest growing economies, leads the list of best places for investment and development, driven by their current GDP growth rates, appropriate investment climate and substantial trade opportunities.

The study also revealed the presence of 22 other rapidly growing global economies, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand and Poland that offer immense avenues for future growth.

Mr Monish Chatrath Grant of Thornton India National Markets said that "Emerging markets offer great potential for growth in a global economic slowdown scenario. Availability of low cost yet highly educated labor force with strong work ethics, combined with fast industrialization, technology deployment and a strong focus on infrastructure development is enabling these countries to close the gap with the more affluent and relatively slower growing mature economies."

According to recent projections, China’s economy would move ahead of the US by 2027, India would catch up with the US by 2050 and the Brazil, Russia, India and China as a group will surpass the G7 by 2032. Emerging and developing economies’ will on an average grow by 6.3% in 2008 and 6.4% in 2009. In contrast, advanced economies are forecast to grow by 1.3% during this period.