così? 
codice:
<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="a.aspx.vb" Inherits="prove_a" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server" >
<div>
<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True">
</asp:DropDownList>
<br /><br />
<asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder1" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
codice:
Option Strict On
Imports o = Oracle.DataAccess.Client
Partial Class prove_a
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
Protected Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
If Not Me.IsPostBack Then
'popolo il DropDown leggendo i dati da database
ora.FillListControl(Me.DropDownList1, gl.StringaConnessioneORA_PIETRO, "SELECT ID_REGIONE, NOME_REGIONE FROM REGIONI WHERE ID_REGIONE > 0 ORDER BY LOWER(NOME_REGIONE)", "nome_regione", "id_regione", New ListItem())
End If
End Sub
Protected Sub DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles DropDownList1.SelectedIndexChanged
Dim c As DropDownList = DirectCast(sender, DropDownList)
Me.PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl(String.Format("{0} - {1}", c.SelectedItem.Text, c.SelectedItem.Value)))
End Sub
End Class