Oct. 4--Marina Akopian has been managing money in emerging markets for the past 13 years, first at Pictet Asset Management, then at Barings and for the past three years at boutique investment house Hexam Capital.

During this time she has had to deal with a catalogue of economic and financial crises that have caused emerging markets to go into near meltdown. But through it all she has remained convinced that investing in emerging markets is the way forward.

"Investing in emerging markets is no longer a luxury, an adventure," she says, sitting in Hexam's offices overlooking the Old Bailey in central London. "It's a necessity. Investors in the UK cannot afford to ignore emerging markets any longer."

Akopian, 36, who was born in Armenia and whose late father was a colonel in the former Soviet army, then reels off a series of statistics as to why she is so adamant that the emerging markets investment story is so compelling.

"Look, next year China will record ten per cent growth in its gross domestic product," she says. "This is after nine to ten per cent growth this year.

"In the developed world, GDP will contract this year by anything between two and four per cent. Although growth will resume next year, it will be anaemic compared with that seen in developing countries such as China, India, Brazil and Russia. We'll be lucky to see GDP growth in the developed world of two per cent."

There are other figures she is keen to impart. India's share of global GDP is greater than the UK's while China's is bigger than that of Japan. The combined GDP of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so called "Bric" economies, now dwarfs that of the US.

"Emerging markets account for 80 per cent of the world's population," says Akopian. They account for 75 per cent of both the world's land mass and foreign exchange reserves and 50 per cent of global GDP. But when it comes to the value of world equity markets, they represent only 12 per cent by market capitalisation. This is a massive paradox and one which must change."

Although Akopian admits she may be biased -- Hexam invests only in emerging markets -- there is no doubt that an increasing number of investment advisers believe that clients should be gently increasing their exposure to emerging markets. Among them is Darius McDermott, managing director of London-based Chelsea Financial Services.

He says: "On average, my clients have just under two per cent exposure to emerging markets. I now feel investors should be looking to have between five and ten per cent exposure depending on risk appetite.

"I see emerging markets as a long-term investment story. Their economies are less indebted and have more growth potential than their Western counterparts.

"Their new middle classes will ensure consumption of everything from diamonds to flatscreen TVs while the West will continue to buy their exports. They are also commodity rich."

Even keener is Mark Dampier, investment funds expert at Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown. He believes that anyone with an investment horizon of 20 years or longer should have at least 20 per cent of their investments in emerging markets.

"The industrial revolution we are seeing in emerging markets, and particularly in China, is arguably the last great global growth story," he says.