ASEANâs five core countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand -- have been growing as fast as any other regional grouping in the world over the past five years. Impressive as this pack has been, two of its members have stood out as particularly promising. Giant Indonesia soared during the last half decade, boasting high growth, low inflation, an extremely low debt-to-GDP ratio, strong foreign exchange reserves, and a top-performing stock market. But it is the Philippines, the regionâs other archipelago, that is now providing the biggest upside surprise.
Those statistics say there are now 1,864 wild giant pandas living in central Chinaâs Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu Provinces. Thatâs up from 1,596 estimated animals in a 2003 report, the last time giant pandas were surveyed. However, some in the conservation community suggest that the new numbers may be due in part to wider surveying and an improvement in surveying techniques, though few doubt the upward trajectory reported by the Chinese.
1 There are only about 240 captive pandas in the world. 2  They are all part of a breeding program. a. 3  The ancestor of the giant panda is the Ailurarctos (âcat bearâ) , which is an extinct genus of the Chinese panda that lived 8 million years ago. A pair of breeding pandas needs more than 11 square miles of land. 2  One giant panda usually needs between 2.5 to 4 square miles of land to survive. 3  c. 4  A panda fur is worth between $60,000 and $100,000 on the illegal trade market.