There are several bacterial strains tolerant to organic solvents such as aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, alcohol and esters, which show strong toxic effects on organisms even at quite low concentrations. These bacteria can be used as host strains for bioproduction of hydrophobic chemicals and toxic biofuel and biodegradation of organic pollutants. In Asian Core Program, our research group has successfully isolated manyorganic solvent tolerant bacteria from soil and seawater samples collected in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Japan. Pseudomonas putida T57 and Rhodococcus opacus  were isolated from soil samples from Japan. They are mesophilic bacteria (no growth at 40^oC), tolerant to many hydrocarbons and even utilize several hydrocarbons as growth substrates. In Southeast Asia, organic solvent tolerant bacteria, which also exhibit thermotolerance, were obtained. Bacillus subtilis GRSW2-B1 and BKS2-P2/3 were isolated from seawater samples of Thailand. They tolerate relatively hydrophilic solvents such as butanol and propioialdehyde, and are good candidates of host strains for butanol and 1,3-propadiol production from biomass. Thermotolerant and solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas was isolated in Vietnam. It also produces solvent tolerant extracellular enzymes. A Gram negative bacterial strain, isolated from soil sample of Laos, shows good tolerance to butanol. This strain is also expected to be a host for butanol production. We also present development of molecular genetic tools for engineering our solvent tolerant bacteria for bioproduction of value-added chemicals.