Michael Porter, a Harvard professor who has become the region's economic guru, peddles the comforting notion that Central America may be able to by-pass the sweatshop stage of development and leap quickly from poverty to northern standards of productivity, social protection and environmental sensitivity.

ECONOMIST: Central America opens for business

While Mr Balls was at Harvard the three men co-wrote an academic paper analysing British unemployment by region and by skill.

ECONOMIST: New Labour??s gurus: The American connection | The

Top Guides, a tour company started by Harvard anthropologist Kathryn Levenson, also takes visitors to search for the Vietnamese langur in the country's northern rainforest region.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch