CULTURAL barriers do not come down easily in Asia, and for this reason, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew believes talent will not flow smoothly across borders anytime soon.

To illustrate, MM Lee shared his long-time observations of China and India, saying:'You can take a Chinese or an Indian, bring them to America and as a minority in the American milieu, he will begin to absorb the American ethos.'

'But you bring a few Americans to China or India and you think you can spread this ethos into India and China, you're dead wrong.'

He was speaking at an hour-long dialogue on Friday that capped the three-day Singapore Human Capital Summit.

It was attended by about 700 international business leaders and human resource specialists.

Moderator Professor Narayan Pant, Insead's dean of executive education, had brought up a lingering concern that Asia's cultural differences are a challenge to incoming top talent, who need to behave differently in diverse parts of Asia to succeed.

'Do you see that changing?' Prof Pant asked. 'Is talent going to become even more fungible than before because cultural barriers to success go down?'

Mr Lee's reply: 'I don't think that's possible because our group of people do not change so readily.'

The theme at the dialogue was Building Competitiveness: Harnessing Strategic People Trends in Asia.

Nine questions were posed by Prof Pant and the audience, ranging from leadership to the depth of the recession.

MM Lee also noted that missionaries sent to China and India in the past converted an 'infinitesimal' number in China and India - both ancient civilisations with their own beliefs.

Cultural barriers are a 'constant concern' for Singapore which has opened its doors to foreigners.

'We have a population that's already attuned to the Singapore way of doing things. They don't rush. They accept certain norms of behaviour.'

'If we've more foreigners than Singaporeans, then the Singaporeans will become like the foreigners, and we lose our basic attributes. We'll be down the spiral.'

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.