Su Jain-Rong: Taiwan's finmin struggles to shine

Jakarta's move to double down on Mulyani Indrawati bears fruit yet again as she stays top of the Asian finance minister pile for the third year in a row.

After a relatively smooth year in 2017, the financial secretary of the Philippines proposed drastic reform last year over the way government approves and allocates its budget with an aim to support long-term economic growth.

Singapore's incumbent finance minister works hard to maintain the city's attractiveness as a global financing hub for private equity and infrastructure funds.

Josh Frydenberg is keeping government spending down, but with an election looming, his influence over Australia's economy may be short lived.

Hong Kong calls itself Asia's World City but appears to be heading towards "Another Chinese City", with worries that integration into the regional Greater Bay Area will erode the city's huge financial reserves.

Questions linger over how the interim Indian finance minister intends to raise state income in the long run to support the massive increase in government expenditure.