Efforts by Southeast Asian countries to upgrade and modernise their navies will yield little success because of poor planning, a strategic think-tank said today.

Singapore is the exception because, backed by vast financial resources and investments in military research, it now boasts one of the most advanced navies in the region, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.

"That investment has certainly benefitted Singapore's navy," Tim Huxley, a director at IISS, said ahead of a conference of Asia-Pacific defence ministers and security experts.

"Singapore has already made quite substantial progess developing a navy that ranks alongside its counterparts in other developed countries," he said.

Singapore's meticulous approach is in stark contrast to that of its neighbours, where the naval modernisation programmes are often short-changed by the lack of infrastructure and logistics support, the London-based IISS said.

"So while naval procurement programmes may continue apace, in general Southeast Asian navies will be fairly slow to develop real new capabilities," said Huxley.

Malaysia is seen as the only Southeast Asian country that could catch up but Singapore is still expected have the most advanced naval capabilities in 2015, the IISS said in a report launched in May.

"There are few signs of similar developments elsewhere in Southeast Asia," according to the report.

A key focus

It said Singapore allocates nearly 10 percent of its military budget to research and development, information technology procurement and experimentation, which will help it maintain its edge.

The report said naval modernisation programmes would remain a key focus for the region because national prestige is at stake and outstanding territorial disputes are far from resolved.

Both Malaysia and Thailand will continue upgrading their surface combat inventories and develop submarine arms while Indonesia will try to keep its 14 strike force ships and small submarine force as modern and as well equipped as possible, the report said.

Singapore has annually been spending around six percent of gross domestic product on defence, a legacy of its vulnerable early days as a republic.

Out of its budget for the financial year to March 2007 of 41.21 billion Singapore dollars (25.3 billion US), 10.05 billion dollars is set aside for defence, an increase of 8.5 percent from the previous year.