BusinessWeek- Assets invested in Asia-focused hedge-fund strategies fell about 10% in the first quarter of 2008, with industry assets under management plummeting from $110 billion to $100 billion, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research.

Net allocations to Asia-only strategies also decreased in the first three months of the year, although net allocations to global emerging-market strategies, which include Asian markets, increased by $1 billion.

On a global basis, the hedge-fund industry attracted a net of $16.5 billion in the first quarter (versus receiving $194 billion throughout 2007), with total capital under management virtually flat over the quarter at $1.9 trillion.

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BusinessWeek- Lee Shyan-Yuan, one of several commissioners at Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), believes attracting hedge funds to the market would be a smart move.

He is courting hedge funds to invest in Taiwan and raise money from investors in that market. That’s a bold move from a regulator, considering that many of his peers in other markets in Asia have not yet fully embraced hedge funds; some even still consider them the enemy.

Hedge funds, after all, have been blamed—justifiably or not—at least in part for some of the difficult periods in Asia’s financial markets, most notably the regional financial crisis beginning in 1997.

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