Singapore, November 21:

Leading Asian advertising professionals at a meet here were today urged to take advantage of the economic growth of India and China and “soar with them in the n-ext wave of Asian succes-s”. At the AdAsia 2005, which kicked off today, the over 500 participants were asked to view the Asian region “as one big market”, with creative standards comparable to those in the US, Europe and Australia.

Singapore’s Information, Communications and the Arts Minister Lee Boon Yang said, “With China and India enjoying exponential growth, we need to position oursel-ves to plug into this vast potential and soar with them in the next wave of Asian success. China already acknowledges that they need to go from ‘Ma-de in China’ to ‘Designed in China”, Lee said.

The country has more than 800 university-level design schools while South Korea has 350. Design has been placed at the top of many countries’ agendas, Lee said. In Singapore alone, Lee said spending on advertising surpassed the $1.1 billion mark in 2004.