Episode 1 will ask how ASEAN can reimagine integration for its next chapter.
2026 marks the first year of the next phase of the region's journey, as ASEAN begins building towards the ASEAN Community Vision 2045. The inaugural episode takes up impact, sovereignty and geoeconomic relevance, and offers an unscripted insiders' take on integration's next chapter. The panel will also weigh what a more fractured world means for the choices in front of the region. Catch the full discussion on aseanx TV when it is released.
The panel will ask what integration has delivered.
Speakers will weigh what regional integration has changed for businesses and communities across the eleven markets.
The panel will ask what happens when national interest wins.
Speakers will examine how national priorities shape, and limit, the regional agenda.
The panel will ask how ASEAN keeps its place.
Speakers will consider the region's standing as global trade fragments into competing blocs.
Forum · Ep 1YM Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz
Chairman, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA); Chairman, Southeast Asian Futures Initiative Centre (SEAFIC)
Forum · Ep 1YBhg. Tan Sri Nazir Razak
Chairman, ASEAN-BAC Malaysia (2023–2025); Founding Partner and Chairman, Ikhlas Capital
Forum · Ep 1YBhg. Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria
Former Executive Director, APEC Secretariat; former Secretary-General, Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
Forum · Ep 1George T. Barcelon
Chairman Emeritus, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI)
Forum · Ep 1Jukhee Hong
Founder, aseanx
Season 1 will continue with the questions that operators across the eleven markets raise most often.
No Business Passport, No Single Market?
What actually stops a business from operating as freely across eleven markets as one
The ASEAN AI Boom
Where the region's AI investment is landing, and whether the growth is broad-based or concentrated
The Digital Economy Framework Agreement: What It Would Actually Change
What the region's digital economy framework agreement would actually change
Hyperscaling Cross-Border Trade — What's the Missing Link?
The infrastructure and rules that would need to close for regional trade to scale
Regional Capital and Regional Champions: Why ASEAN Savings Do Not Fund ASEAN Companies
Why committed regional capital and regional companies still struggle to find each other
AI Is Coming for the Jobs: ASEAN's Future of Work
What AI-driven disruption means for the region's labour markets, by sector and by market
Workplace Equity Can't Run on Goodwill
Moving workplace equity from stated commitment to measured practice
The Interconnection Dividend
Shared grid & port capacity vs. duplicated national assets
Digital Infrastructure's Uneven Rollout
5G & fibre reach: Tier-1 cities or across ASEAN?
Aviation & Airport Expansion
Mega-airport buildouts: capacity-driven or speculative?
Master-Planned Cities
Which secondary cities have bankable township pipelines?
Smart, Sustainable Cities
10-year commitments: real operations or recycled pilots?
Friend-Shoring's Durability
China+1 in ASEAN: durable capability or transient?
Payment Rails Interoperability
Project Nexus reach: all 11 states or two-speed region?
Agriculture & Agri-Processing
ASEAN capturing downstream processing value?
Topics are subject to change.
Episode 1 of the aseanx Forum is in preparation.
Questions about the Forum or speaking on a panel can go to hello@aseanx.co.