The first Southeast Asia consultative meeting on generic or plain packaging of tobacco products was held at the Orchard Hotel in Singapore on 25^th February 2010. The meeting was organized jointly by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) and the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA). It brought together tobacco control focal points from Brunei, Maldives, Singapore, Thailand and representatives from SEATCA and FCA (Pacific Islands and SEARO). Two resource persons from Canada and Australia made presentations covering issues on the urgent call for plain packaging as a strong tobacco control measure to counter tobacco industry tactics and strategies in promoting their deadly tobacco products; definition of generic packaging; potential legal and non-legal challenges as well as sharing resources and evidence available to support plain packaging implementation.