Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach and Mary Meeker both recently presented at the Caijing Magazine Annual Conference in Beijing.

The conference - a leading forum on the Chinese economy - addressed the major challenges and opportunities for China in 2008.

Roach kicked off his remarks by providing a comparision between the dotcom bubble burst of 1999 and the recent subprime mortgage crisis; he then focused on trends in global consumerism and the myth of Asia decoupling. He explored the challenges facing a growing China, as well as the increase in protectionism and currency risks that are playing out with Asia economic expansion.

In her remarks, Meeker explored the connections between innovation, education and technology and how the cycle of wealth creation flows within. She then went in-depth on global trends in technology/media/telecom, pointing to the "hot pockets" of regional growth in these rapidly advancing sectors.