Featured image above shows Junie del Mundo, Senior Adviser for Creative Economy, ASEAN BAC Philippines, Chair and CEO of EON Group. On his left is Ms. Jade Roxas-Divinagracia, Managing Partner, Isla Lipana & Co., PwC Philippines. (Photo: SDN) 

ASEAN Diversity a Source of Strength But Can also Create Division

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SM AURA PREMIER, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, September 17, 2026 (SDN) — Many Filipinos have been consuming a lot of products and services everyday, perhaps, with zero idea they are helping the Philippine economy in a big way.

These consumers contribute in expanding the economy through what they watch, wear, play, listen to, design, create, and share in their everyday lives. Simple as that.

They could be in Film and Streaming, Game Development and Animation, Fashion and Design, Music and Live Performance, Advertising and Digital Content, Architecture, Publishing, Crafts, and Creative Technology.

These products and services were borne out of imaginative minds, ideas and belong to what is called the “Creative Industry” which has carved a “Creative Economy” and where money flows like a waterfall. Maybe not, though still aplenty plenty.

But know this.

Filipino creatives, according to a study of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on the Philippine Creative Economy (PCE) in 2025, generated a staggering Php2.12 trillion, around 7.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The PCE also created 8.71 million jobs, which amounted in the same year to 17.8 percent of the country’s employment numbers.

Moreover, the Philippines exported creative goods and creative services worth worth a combined Php747 billion (PSA-PCE), broken down into Php320.06 billion for creative goods and Php426.88 billion for creative services.

These figures are from ASEAN Creative Economy – Media Fact Sheet provided to SDN – SciTech & and Digital News here at the Media Briefing organized as part of the three-day ASEAN Creative Industries Expo 2026 by Malikhaing Pinoy. (Malikhaing Pinoy translates to Creative Filipino.)

Can Filipino creatives top the above numbers in 2027?

Panelists for the ASEAN Creative Economy Media Briefing were EON Group Chair and CEO Junie del Mundo, who is a Senior Adviser for the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (BAC), and Ms. Mary Jade Roxas-Divinagracia, Managing Partner, Isla Lipana & PwC Philippines.

Roxas-Divinagracia, who presented a paper on creative economy believes, or at least hopeful, the numbers can be topped by Filipino creatives. Meaning, if the stars aligned, the country’s creative economy has more potentials to earn more than the 2025 numbers.

She showed to SDN figures on how much some ASEAN members’ creative economy generated.

More creations of Legendary Beast Studios by Filipino creatives of Mars Ravelo’s superheroes

The figures showed the following ASEAN members’ creative economy’s contributions to their respective GDP, such as Indonesia, US$94 billion; Thailand, US$44 billion; Vietnam, US$44 billion; Singapore, US$39.8 billion; Philippines, US$37.2 billion; and Malaysia, US$32.8 billion.

Roxas-Divinagracia said figures from the five other members of ASEAN — Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Timor Leste were not yet available.

In his remarks titled “Tone Setting: Economic Opportunity of Imagination” at the briefing, del Mundo explained what’s “Creative Economy”.

“Creative Economy,” he points out, “is where creativity, culture, knowledge, talent and intellectual property (IP) become economic value.”

He describes it as “an area of growing importance to ASEAN’s economic future,” at the same time adding that creativity across the region “is already generating ideas, enterprises, products, and experiences with real economic potential”.

In the Media Fact Sheet, the economy arising out of human imagination is a global phenomenon, not just in the ASEAN, which has around 700 million people of various languages, cultures, traditions, etc.

An UNCTAD Data Hub – Creative Economy Trade Data showed US$1.7-trillion global creative services exports in 2024; US$709 billion global creative goods exports in the same year.

Still in his presenation-cum-speech at the Media Briefing and later at the afternoon main event dubbed ASEAN Creative Economy Business Dialogue, noted how creativity, culture, knowledge, talent, and intellectual property intersect among the region’s diverse population and turn into economic value.

The EON Group chair and CEO cited the case of the Philippines where the the creative economy stretches into many industry domains, covering audiovisual and digital media to design, publishing, creative services, the arts, traditional cultural expression, and cultural sites.

ASEAN did not start from zero

“But the point is not the list (above). The point is that the Creative Economy is not a niche sector. It is a broad economic ecosystem where ideas become IP, IP becomes enterprise, and enterprise creates jobs, and value.

Del Mundo cited technology’s role in expanding how creative products and services are produced, distributed, and commercialized as he emphasized the this drives opportunity to grow even bigger.

Members of ASEAN can draw from a rich fountain of opportunities for their Creative Economy, by leveraging over 1,000 languages and dialects, varied cultural, artistic, and creative traditions to create an extraordinary reservoir for stories, design, content, experiences, and IP.

And for the uninitiates out there in the cold, ASEAN did not at all just wake up one day and, voila, suddenly came up with the idea of an economy driven by creativity.

“The Creative Economy is not a new ASEAN agenda. Its roots lie in ASEAN’s long-standing recognition that culture, heritage, and diversity are integral to regional identity and sustainable development. Over time, that conversation expanded to include enterprise, IP, technology, skills, financing, and market access,” the Media Fact Sheet explains.

In 2022 the ASEAN came up with the Siem Reap Declaration on Promoting a Creative and Adaptive ASEAN Community to Support the Cultural and Creative Economy which was crafted to strengthen the region’s formal commitment to further develop its cultural and creative economy.

In the Philippines, del Mundo recalled, Congress enacted Republi Act No. 11904, otherwise known as the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act (PCIDA).

PCIDA became a law on July 28, 2022, which was passed for the promotion, development, and protection of the “country’s creative sector as a key driver for economic growth and cultural identity” (Facebook DTI Caraga/Scribd +1).

To put more emphasis to the initiatives, the 11-member bloc adopted the ASEAN Creative Economy Sustainability Framework at the 46th ASEAN Summit on May 26, 2025, which “provides the region with a shared vision and strategic direction and calls for a whole-of-ASEAN, culture-centric, inclusive, and sustainability-driven approach”.

While creative leaders have acknowledged the key role of  ASEAN diversity as engine for progress of creative economy, they were also cognizant of the potential in differences in language, culture, traditions, etc., of becoming source of fragmentation among the bloc’s members.

In a study by PwC Philippines of ASEAN stakeholders as discussed by Roxas-Divinagracia at the Media Briefing, she also cited the fact that a one-size-fits-all policy will not work.

She attributed this to different levels of “maturity” among the ASEAN nations. Creative industries, she adds, in the region “have different strengths, gaps, and policy needs.”

Roxas-Divinagracia suggested these “differences” need to be recognized as “the first step to designing policies that build capabilities and unlock each country’s creative potential.”

Perhaps, this is what the Media Fact Sheet wants to convey, that instead of forcing uniformity among the 11 countries, the trick is to make ASEAN’s different systems and strengths function as one well-oiled creative engine.

“The next step is not simply creating another framework. It is building the connections that allow creative value to move from idea to enterprise market,” the Media Fact Sheet says.

A number of insights came out from the PwC ASEAN Creative Industries Research Study, one of them that “readiness” is outpaced by “opportunity” as the former is growing faster.

One telling insight is that 54 percent of those surveyed are still of the view that their creative industry is “predominantly developing”.

Respondents at 67 percent pointed to digital transformation as the leading growing opportunity; 55 percent were of the view that the strongest cooperation priority is on the need for regional financing; 84 percent raised barriers to market access hampered by quality of goods, competitiveness, and distribution platform access.

Based on the study, Roxas-Divinagracia cited “systemic constraints: that creative enterprises are facing as they get to commercialization and scale.

“ASEAN has many of the building blocks in place, but gaps become more apparent as creative enterprises move from creation to commercialization and scale,” she points out.

Apparently, the hurdles for ASEAN creative enterprises, as the study made clear, include Financing as grants and project funding are more available during development and production stages; Intellectual Property where, of course, legal protections exist in the region but its enforcement, valuation, licensing and commercialization lack consistency; Incentives where support is focused around production, operating costs and capability development but its less common on distribution, market expansion and IP commercialization; Capability is not lacking as training is strong in technical and creative skills while less developed are on entrepreneurship, business development, publishing, scaling, and monetization skills.

The Philippines has nine creative domains, categorized by the government, such as:

• Audiovisual media (film, television, animation, video, radio, and photography).
• Digital interactive media (video games, virtual reality, and extended reality systems).
• Creative services (advertising, research and development, and specialized artistic work).
• Design (architecture, graphic design, and industrial design).
• Publishing and printed media (books, magazines, and other printed materials).
• Performing arts (music, theater, dance, and live acting).
• Visual arts (painting, sculpture, crafts, and other fine artworks).
• Traditional cultural expressions (folk art, indigenous weaving, pottery, and heritage practices).
• Cultural sites (historical landmarks, heritage locations, and museums).

Creative industry leaders, while hailing ASEAN diversity as engine of growth, are also cognizant the myriads of differences among the region’s 700 million population might ignite friction and even fracture.

But, apparently, their worry, if ever there is, is overshadowed by their confidence that diversity is more of a positive factor than a negative one.

“Different cultures, markets and capabilities can create fragmentation — but they can be complementary. The opportunity is to connect ASEAN’s different strengths without making them uniform,” as reckoned from what the Media Fact Sheet points out.

And it translates to making “ASEAN’s different strengths work better”, rather than making 700 million individuals become similar creating the same things.

After all, no two individuals have the same imagination creating exact same things. — EDD K. USMAN / SDN

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)

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UPDATE. This story will be updated later on as more information comes in.