Asian Union?

Singapore is proposing that Asian countries begin working towards a regional coalition similar to the European Union.  Officials there say that the challenges of a global economy along with its information technology make it necessary to seek changes.   The challenge is to be competitive with the larger countries in Asia and to keep those most talented individuals from leaving for Silicon Valley.

 “One approach which we in Asia can adopt to take advantage of these opportunities and, at the same time, meet these challenges, is Asian regionalism,” Yeo Cheow Tong, Singapore's minister for communications and information technology, says. “We in Asia are nowhere near the level of European regionalism. We may not want to follow their brand of regionalism, which has evolved within the context of European history, culture and politics. But we cannot afford not to start working on a model of our own.”