According to the FIBA Asia rules, each zone had two places, and the hosts (Vietnam) and holders (China) were automatically qualified.

The other four places are allocated to the zones according to performance in the 2009 FIBA Asia Under-16 Championship.

The draw was held on September 25, 2011, at the Media Conference Room at the Wuhan Sports Center.

[1] China India Malaysia Chinese Taipei South Korea Iraq Uzbekistan Lebanon Iran * Qatar Saudi Arabia Japan Philippines Indonesia Vietnam * Iran did not participate in the tournament due to the Vietnamese decision for not granting visa to Iranian players.

Vietnamese Basketball Federation offered apology to Iran over failure to send visa for Iranian junior team to join the competition.