UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

27 . Southeast Asia and Oceania
Southeast Asia and Oceania
Australia, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Federated States
of Micronesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa,
Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Viet Nam
Tim Turpin, Jing A. Zhang, Bessie M. Burgos and Wasantha Amaradasa
INTRODUCTION
The region has largely withstood the global crisis
The countries covered by the present chapter 1 together
account for over 9% of the world’s population. Taken as a
group, they produced 6.5% of the world’s scientific publications
(2013) but only 1.4% of global patents (2012). GDP per capita at
current prices ranges from just under PPP$ 2 000 in Kiribati to
PPP$ 78 763 in Singapore (Figure 27.1). Australia and Singapore
together produce four-fifths of the region’s patents and
publications.
Economically, the region fared comparatively well through
the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. Although growth
rates dipped in 2008 or 2009, a number of countries avoided
recession altogether, including Australia (Figure 27.2).
As a consequence, pressures on budgets for science and
technology (S&T) have not been as severe as predicted back
in 2010. Timor-Leste even recorded insolent growth rates up
until 2012, buoyed by foreign direct investment (FDI) that
peaked at 6% of GDP in 2009 before falling back to just over
1.6% in 2012.
According to the World Bank’s Knowledge Economy Index,
there has been a general slip in overall rankings in Southeast
Asia since 2009. New Zealand and Viet Nam are the only
ones to have improved their position. Some, such as Fiji, the
Philippines and Cambodia, even slipped considerably over
this period. Singapore continues to lead the region for the
innovation component of the same index and Australia and
New Zealand that for education. The Global Innovation Index
tends to rank countries in a similar order.
1. Malaysia is covered in greater detail in Chapter 26.
Figure 27.1: GDP per capita in Southeast Asia and Oceania, 2013
In thousands of current PPP$
Singapore
78.8
Australia
43.2
New Zealand
34.7
Malaysia
23.3
Palau
15.1
Thailand
14.4
Indonesia
9.6
Fiji
7.8
Philippines 6.5
Samoa 5.8
Tonga 5.3
Viet Nam 5.3
Lao People's Dem. Rep. 4.8
Marshall Islands 3.9
Tuvalu 3.6
Micronesia (Fed. States of) 3.4
Cambodia 3.0
Vanuatu 3.0
Papua New Guinea 2.6
Timor-Leste -1 2.1
Solomon Islands 2.1
Kiribati 1.9
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
-n = data are for n years before reference year
Source: World Bank’s World Development Indicators, April 2015
Chapter 27
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