Foresight Adopters in Asia-Pacific region

Many APEC members such as Japan, China, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand, have chosen to run comprehensive national foresight programs. National foresight for specific sectors also occurs, such as a Thai foresight study of the future for agriculture. Many economies in the APEC region have embarked on their sectoral foresight projects recently.

Smaller scale foresight work, at the level of a province or department, is a growth area in this region. An enormous amount of focused foresight work is currently going on at these levels. It is more difficult to find out about these projects, but they are potentially a rich source of information about how to use foresight effectively. It has been suggested that these focused foresight projects can provide clearer, more practical outcomes and can translate more easily into policy than larger-scale, more abstract foresight projects.

Today, foresight is also being used by more organizations to assess their future and to transform their programs.

Foresight was used by:

  •  Royal Dutch Shell, to anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  •  Singapore, to develop its biotechnology strategy.
  •  Japan, to explore the potential contributions of technology to social needs.
  •  US Pacific Gas and Electric, to prepare for earthquakes in California.
  •  Australia, to prioritize its agricultural research.
  •  Global Distillers, to determine the future market for alcoholic drinks in Asia.
  •  Thailand, to establish a vision of science and technology for development to the year 2020.
  •  Tea producers in processors in Vietnam, to plan the penetration of their products into world markets.
  •  APEC, to tackle the issue of emerging infectious diseases.
  •  UN Millennium Project, to develop a concrete action plan for the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people.
  •  Deutsche Bank, to sketch what paths of development are conceivable for German business and society in the future based on an innovative scenario analysis.
  •  The National Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenges, to pursue and meet the century's great