Marketers who exploit the longer-term potential of emerging markets in China and Southeast Asia will reap handsome rewards, says a new survey sponsored by ups.

However, the survey by the courier service says short-term business prospects in Europe are the highest they have been in four years.

The survey, called the UPS Europe Business Monitor, reports European business leaders say China and Southeast Asia will become the world’s most powerful economic region in 10 to 15 years, surpassing North America and far outdistancing Europe.

Also, says the Monitor, China and Southeast Asia are thought to offer the best potential for investment in manufacturing.

The short-term prospects in Europe are based on confidence in the German economy, which for at least 35 years has been that continent’s economic locomotive.

Worries about German reunification have faded, the Monitor says.

Germany’s confidence in its own economic prospects has risen strongly and 65% of German business leaders say their own economy will show the strongest growth.

The Monitor, which began in 1990, is commissioned and produced by ups.

This year’s Monitor reported the results of 1,509 interviews with European business leaders conducted from the Harris Research Centre in London last September and October.

The interviews were conducted with Belgian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and British executives.

All interviews were conducted in the executive’s native language.

The Monitor records the executives interviewed thought Central and South America offered the poorest opportunities for manufacturing investment.

And, among the Eastern European countries, the Czech Republic offers the best potential, followed by Poland, Hungary and Russia.

Romania and Slovakia offer the least potential, the Monitor says.