Changing landscape

The recent three-day World Economic Forum on ASEAN held in Hanoi, Vietnam from Sept. 11 to 13 had for its theme “ASEAN 4.0: Entrepreneurship and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. And indeed, ASEAN and its member-countries are no longer what they were a few years back, which can both be a good or a bad thing, depending on whether they are going to face the future individually or as a group.

In an article prepared by National University of Singapore professor Ishtiaq Pasha Mahmood prior to the Forum, he pointed out that the ASEAN region, made up of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, “boasted a combined GDP of roughly $2.77 trillion as of 2017, with predictions for enviable GDP growth rates of around 5.3 percent per year through 2019.”

Pasha identified seven challenges that the region is facing in promoting sustainable economic growth, even as he suggested steps to solve them.

First is geopolitical stability and regional relationships. With ASEAN states bordering two of the world’s most populous economic powers, China and India, which makes it a focal point for both regional and global powers, and the fact that China’s claim to territories in the South China Sea overlap with competing claims by Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, closer coordination and common goals among ASEAN governments can help promote stability and lessen the prospect of conflicts, he said.

Second is governance challenges for businesses. He noted that ASEAN is home to a wide variety of businesses, including a number of huge family-owned conglomerates and state-linked enterprises with entrenched interests, although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) together with micro-entrepreneurs make up at least 89 percent of business activity in the region. He said that the region needs strong independent civic institutions to prevent corruption and to help the region compete globally, adding that digital innovations will enable greater transparency and promote economic growth.

Third is new business models. Pasha said that with the ASEAN region offering a growing market of more than 600 million consumers who are price-sensitive and demanding, one way for new entrants to adapt and increase profits is to focus on specific consumer needs and conditions in the region and work backward to develop solutions, with mobile technologies being potentially useful and government support needed to in encouraging companies to innovate by reducing the cost burden of potential failure.

Fourth is the region’s changing demographics. Governments, he said, must help prepare young people to face the demands of an increasingly integrated economic region, through education and training. “Current efforts by ASEAN countries may not be adequate. And as more people migrate to cities such as Manila or Jakarta in search of better opportunities, they create a pressure on existing infrastructure and job markets. Sustainable solutions will require innovative approaches. Issues ranging from affordable housing, to low-cost, quality healthcare and education call for ASEAN governments to work closely with private sector and non-government organizations,” he emphasized.

Fifth is the need for inclusive growth and sustainable development, given the disparities in income levels (from Singapore’s GDP per capita of $57,714 to Myanmar’s $1,298 in 2017), in particular broad, robust investment in infrastructure, financial institutions and strategic planning.

Sixth is the regional digital economy. With more than 125,000 new users forecast to come online every day through the year 2020 and most of that growth coming via mobile use, Pasha stressed that this has the potential to stimulate new industries, leapfrog legacy business models and fundamentally change the lives of millions of people. He, however, added that technology adoption differs greatly among ASEAN countries, and there is a need to build regional internet infrastructure.

Last is economic integration with the launch the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 which aims to foster a single market and industrial production capacity, increase competitiveness, support inclusive growth and further integrate the region into the global economy, Pasha said, adding that a revised Trans-Pacific Partnership was signed by ASEAN countries, Australia, Canada, among others, just this year.

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The WEF ASEAN featured a number of discussion sessions focusing on issues facing the region. And one interesting session dealt with Designing Cities 4.0, featuring speakers from both the public and private sectors from different countries.

An article by straitstimes.com quoted Maria Rebecca Pelaez Plaza, president of Manila-based architectural design firm Plaza + Partners, as saying that reviewing the past is important to come up with effective solutions for the future which address the human dimension.

Plaza said that much of the region’s infrastructure is still based on 20th-century design principles though faced with 21st-century situations, conditions and requirements.

She noted that that while the percentage of people living in cities has shot up, the human dimension has not been addressed in the design of cities. In the 1900s, 13 percent of the people lived in cities but now, four billion people live in cities, which is half the world’s population, making it imperative that cities be designed with people at the center of the town-planning narrative.

In another article, this time by devex.com, Plaza said that today, cities are overly congested and filled with crowded roadways, but with few sidewalks or spaces for recreation.

She pointed out that while the region began with building cities for cars and not people, now “we must be designing cities with people at the epicenter of the town planning narrative.”

An added challenge for city planners, Plaza stressed, is climate change.

After developing an international architectural career, the young Plaza returned to the Philippines to establish Plaza + Partners which is a group of architects, interior designers, urban planners and design professionals. In 2016, this column featured Plaza when she was declared the gold winner for the architecture category of the prestigious design competition Asia Young Designer Award for her work “Project Noah.” She later represented the Philippines in the regional grand competition in Indonesia.

Her winning design was inspired by a penal colony in Davao where a plantation employs inmates, provides livelihood training prograns, and gives them wages. Using this approach and also reflecting on her native Manobo roots that uphold uncontrived transitions between spaces, Plaza made Project Noah community-oriented and sensitive to the environment.

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