Another important indicator of technological advancement is research and development (R&D) indicators as measured in the World Bank’s World Development Indicators 2012.28 R&D can be measured through budget allocation and expenditure, the generation of researchers, and the number of academic publications. The data reveal that the commitment to R&D was low in most ASEAN countries. Singapore was the only country in the region for which R&D expenditure stood above 1% of GDP in 2010.29 In fact, Singapore has the highest number of R&D researchers with 5,659 researchers (excluding post-graduate students) per million population in 2010. There were less than 500 researchers per million population in each of the other nine ASEAN countries.
Poverty in the Region
The opinion survey indicates that “poverty” ranks number seven on the list of possible obstacles for the formation of an ASEAN Community, as perceived by respondents. The survey indicates that 75% of Malaysians, 70% of Indo-nesians, and 86% of Singaporeans agree that poverty is an obstacle to ASEAN integration. With the exception of Singapore and Brunei, there were sizable levels of poverty, marginal in some countries and more adverse in others.
In order to gauge the levels of poverty in society, “income poverty” has been used widely as a reliable indicator. In ASEAN, measured by the international