A Region on the Rise: Culture and Creativity in Southeast Asian Cities

Jakarta is transforming into a culture-driven global city, not merely through infrastructural advancements or technology adoption, but by embedding arts and culture as the ultimate soul of urban development. – Rano Karno, Vice Governor of Jakarta (2025-2030)

The eleven nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have a combined population of 684 million. This makes Southeast Asia the world’s third-biggest market and its fifth-biggest economy, growing at a rate of nearly 5% a year.

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Southeast Asia’s cities are not merely recipients of global cultural trends. They are active producers, building the institutions, policies, and creative ecosystems that will shape how culture is governed in the 21st century. It is a region of great cultural diversity with an extraordinarily rich cultural heritage and a dynamic contemporary culture that encompasses traditional crafts and performance, food, music, visual arts and highly innovative digital media.

Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Metro Manila are mature, globally connected megacities where cultural production is already central to economic life. Each one has policies and initiatives that could benefit others. The question is no longer whether culture matters, but how governance, data systems, and investment structures can be organised and shared to realise culture’s full potential. The central finding of this study is that Southeast Asia’s cities are not constrained by a lack of cultural assets or creative talent. They are constrained by governance systems, institutional structures, and the quality of the cultural data available to them.