True, Asia was the last continent to organize regionally, but this fact gives it the advantage of being able to use other experiences as guide. As a region, Asia is still unformed. Today among the 36 countries in Asia and the Pacific, regionalism is gradually taking on a new life, even though the concept still defies sharp definition. One authority lists no fewer than 165 regional organizations and activities as of 1990, ranging from the Agricultural Advisory Council of the Southeast Asian Regional Center of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization to the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality of the Association of South East Asian Nations. But its peaceful ways have prospered as well.
Some governments are strongly committed to regional cooperation.
The Philippines is participating in 41 and 614, respectively, and Thailand in 41 and 503. Not all of these efforts are successful, to be sure. Japanese scholars and communist countries had advanced many such ideas in the 1970s, but always the basis of membership and the prospective functions remained vague. But there are promising and fascinating success stories as well as failures. As the activities diversified to accommodate the foreign trade requirements of those companies, an environmental capability was developed to supplement APO's technical assistance in management.