ASEAN head pushes leaders to build region of creativity

Jun 1, 2011, 8:02 GMT

Singapore - The secretary general of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday urged leaders of the 10-member bloc to move from vision to action, saying they must promote a region of creativity to stay competitive.

'Except for Singapore, the rest of the ASEAN countries are consumers rather than creators of intellectual properties,' Surin Pitsuwan said.

ASEAN leaders, therefore, must build a political and economic infrastructure supporting creativity and innovation, he said at a seminar in Singapore.

'ASEAN needs to catch up,' Surin said, adding that Japan, South Korea, India and China set good examples of innovative countries with a high output of patents.

He said ASEAN, which has a combined population of about 600 million people, needed 'more substance' rather than vision and expectations.

ASEAN members had ratified most of the agreements needed to create a planned economic community by 2015, 'but we have problems of implementation,' Surin said.

Surin spoke at the launch of the ASEAN Competitive Report at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The report concluded that ASEAN did not lack well-defined goals and plans but 'its weakness lies in its ability to deliver on provisions in its agreements.'

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.