Asean positioning as creativity powerhouse
Video games developed in Manila could find players in Jakarta. A television series from Thailand could become a hit in the Philippines. Or, a design dreamed up in Singapore could find a market elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Digital platforms have made anything and everything possible when it comes to the creative economy, an increasingly lucrative sector for the 11 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Already estimated to generate some $300 billion in value, the challenge now is connecting 11 vastly different creative economies into a bigger regional market approaching 700 million consumers.
A study presented at this year’s Asean Creative Economy Business Dialogue found that the region already possesses much of the talent and capabilities needed to compete globally. But what remains fragmented are the markets, regulations and commercial infrastructure that allow creative businesses to scale.
After all, Asean economies are hardly cut from the same cloth. The study notes that Indonesia brings deep cultural assets and a massive domestic market, while Singapore has more developed intellectual property (IP), innovation and commercialization infrastructure. Thailand has strengths in film, performing arts and fashion, while the Philippines has built deep talent in animation, game development, film, music and other creative services.
Rather than erase those differences, the study conducted by Isla Lipana & Co./PwC Philippines suggests Asean will be better off connecting them.
“No single Asean economy has every capability needed across the entire value chain,” PwC Philippines managing partner Jade Roxas-Divinagracia says.
Getting there means tackling barriers in financing, market access and IP, among others.
In a stakeholder survey, 84 percent collectively identified problems involving quality and readiness, competitiveness, or access to distributors and platforms, while 55 percent pointed to regional financing as an important area for cooperation.
“While creative work is a great asset, it has value, but it’s not something that you see on the balance sheet,” Roxas-Divinagracia says.
One initiative Asean is banking on to bridge some of those gaps is the Digital Economy Framework Agreement.
The Department of Trade and Industry expects the pact, targeted for signing at the Asean Summit in November, to streamline areas such as cross-border payments, data flows and IP protection.
Manila itself is also pushing to host a proposed Asean Center of Excellence for Creative Industries, envisioned as a regional hub for research, capacity-building and market development. It likewise wants to host the Asean Center of Excellence for micro, small and medium enterprises.
Trade Secretary Cristina Roque says there is no better time than the Philippines’ Asean chairship to make an aggressive push to grow the bloc’s creative economy.
After all, the Philippine creative economy already accounts for one of the larger shares of gross domestic product among Asean countries, generating P2.12 trillion in 2025, or about 7.6 percent of the economy.
“Our creative industries generate a cultural ‘currency’ that draws the world to our shores,” Roque says. “As we lead Asean in 2026, we are turning local creative talent into a regional export powerhouse.”
So as Asean grapples this year with an oil crisis weighing on its economies, the onus is also on the bloc to confront a question becoming harder to ignore: how can a region already so rich in ideas make much more out of them?
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