Southeast Asian member states must come together as a single entity to face up to the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that includes embracing the Internet, digitalisation and robotic technology comprehensively if they want to fully enjoy the fruit of global economic growth. 
Given the uneven distribution of economic prosperity in ASEAN, revolutionising the way its people of more than 600 million are educated is an important ingredient to enable it to pool their talents, according to Malaysia's (Bernama) News Agency. 
More than anything else, the people are important as education enables them to acquire the skills needed and embrace the new technologies that will set the stage for ASEAN to collectively enjoy the fruit of the expanding global growth moving forward and not be left behind.