Why in news?

• The first India ASEAN InnoTech Summit 2018, a two-day International Innotech Summit, exhibition, B2B and B2G meetings was held in New Delhi.
• The theme of India ASEAN InnoTech Summit was: Accelerating towards innovative development.
• It was organised by FICCI in association with the Department of Science & Technology (DST) and the Ministry of External Affairs to connect local and global research & development community for collaborative engagement.

Objectives of the summit:

• Explore avenues of cross country partnerships with Indian R&D-based enterprises.
• Capture global trends in technology management and strategy .
• Advance progressive ideas for policy reforms and regulatory environment .
• Create avenues for industry-academia-government partnerships .
• Build capacities for market assessment and rapid commercialization of research .
• Promote best practices in financing, strategy, and leadership .
• Connect local and global research & development community for collaborative engagement .

Highlights:

• Participating ASEAN member countries in this summit were Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
• On sidelines of this summit, an exhibition to showcase best Indian Innovative Technologies, with potential implementation in ASEAN region was also organized.
• Besides this summit also provided platform for B2G meetings i.e. one to one meeting with ASEAN delegation of ministers, advisors, and other dignitaries.

ASEAN:

• ASEAN is regional intergovernmental organisation comprising 10 Southeast Asian countries, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration.
• 10-member ASEAN comprise of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos.
• India is a full dialogue partner of the ASEAN.