Singapore emerged as the top place to work and play among university students in the Association of South-East Asian Nations grouping, a survey said Wednesday.
More than half of the 2,170 undergraduates polled, or 54.3 per cent, said they would "most like to work" in Singapore among the 10 ASEAN nations, the dpa reported.
Malaysia was a distant second with 11.2 per cent, followed by Brunei at 8.3 per cent, Thailand at 7.1 per cent, Vietnam at 4.7 per cent and Indonesia at 2.5 per cent, according to findings published in The Straits Times.
The Philippines was in seventh place at 2.1 per cent. Laos garnered only 1.1 per cent, followed by Myanmar at 0.7 per cent and Cambodia at 0.4 per cent.
The region-wide survey, supported by the ASEAN Foundation, also found Singapore as the top choice for holidays, picked by 35 per cent of respondents.
Thailand was a second at 20.9 per cent, and Malaysia followed with 13.9 per cent.
The study's co-authors, Assistant Professor Eric Thompson of the National University of Singapore and Chulanee Thianthai of Chulalongkorn University, said that destinations picked by students are different from those preferred by international tourists.
While tourists prefer Cambodia's Angkor Wat and Indonesia's Borobudur, Thompson told The Straits Times that ASEAN students "want to see modernity" more than ancient ruins.