While the region's economy greatly depends on agriculture, manufacturing and services are becoming more important. Newly industrialized countries including Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines while Singapore and Brunei are affluent developed economies. Vietnam is notably making steady progress in developing its industrial sectors. The region notably manufactures textiles, electronic high-tech goods such as microprocessors and heavy industrial products such as automobiles. Reserves of oil are also present in the region. Tourism has been a key factor in economic development for many Southeast Asian countries. According to UNESCO, “tourism, if correctly conceived, can be a tremendous development tool and an effective means of preserving the cultural diversity of our planet.” In 1995, Singapore was the regional leader in tourism receipts relative to GDP at over 8%. By 1998, those receipts had dropped to less than 6% of GDP while Thailand and Lao PDR increased receipts to over 7%.*
*Excerpt from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia