"We are talking about providing activity and involvement of active citizens. In many of our countries, we have delivered the functions of research and education to politicians rather than caring ourselves," Dr Walter said.
Ireland also had value as a role model, because of the way it had turned itself from an agricultural to a service economy and changed its mind set from emigration to immigration.
"To achieve that, they have have made full use of a well developed education system and relied of foreign Irish for networking and capital. It's very important and should be copied."
While Finland entered the information economy early, it had done so on the back of one company, Nokia.
The willingness of Koreans to learn and their refusal to accept anything but the best technology are good examples, but the country is being held back by big conglomerate companies.
He said Singapore looked good on the outside, but the capital productivity of its savings was half that of Hong Kong, where organisations were more willing to take the risk of failure.
Dr Walter said the development of the West had disadvantaged family life, and it could learn from Asia about family values.
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