It is timely to ask where global innovation starts. Five years ago, the US Patent Office issued 170,000 patents;

- 80% were from the US, Japan or Germany;

- 15% from Europe, Taiwan, South Korea, Israel or Canada.

- Just 0.4% originated in India and China.

Fortunately, these numbers do not reflect the truth of Asian creativity and innovation. A UC Berkeley study of Silicon Valley start-ups since 1990, found 1/3 were founded or co-founded by Chinese or Indian entrepreneurs creating US$20 billion in annual revenue and more than 70,000 jobs.

Largely due to making Asia the “offshore” operations for MNCs, a generation of “micro-multinationals” have built a critical mass of engineers and managers around these operations. This is beginning to impact the creativity and innovation as talented engineers and managers across Asia join emerging businesses or build their own.

Asia is creating entrepreneurial centres of rapid innovation and a multitude of venture resources are providing the entrepreneurial infrastructure.