Manuscript in production · Publisher review
ASEAN Rising
How Institutions, Execution, and Capital Will Shape Southeast Asia's Future
By Matthew Barsing · Foreword by Tan Sri Michael Yeoh
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"ASEAN is imperfect. Indeed, hugely imperfect. Yet compared with its peers, such as SAARC, MERCOSUR, and the African Union, it remains a shining example of successful regional cooperation. Matthew Barsing is right to suggest that ASEAN can do better. Execution is key. His arguments and recommendations deserve careful attention from leaders and policymakers. A stronger ASEAN will benefit the region and provide a model for other regions to follow."
By Tan Sri Michael Yeoh
Chairman, ASEAN Economic Club. Co-Founder, ASEAN Leadership and Partnership Forum.
ASEAN has entered a harder phase of development. For more than five decades the region advanced through pragmatism, patience, and a willingness to keep working across difference. That record still matters. But endurance is no longer the main test. The region now has to show that it can convert accumulated relevance into stronger economic weight under conditions that are less forgiving than before.
Institutional delivery therefore matters more than ever. ASEAN has never lacked plans, meetings, or ambition. Its real strength has appeared when ideas reached operating reality. The years ahead will judge the region less by aspiration and more by whether policy can reach the ground with enough clarity and speed.
The decisive questions are now practical. Can projects move. Can utilities support growth. Can customs operate without theatre. Can digital payments be trusted. Can talent systems keep pace with new industries. Those questions will do more to determine outcomes than broad demographic optimism.
Excerpted from the Foreword. © 2026 Matthew Barsing. Manuscript edition prepared for publisher review and production planning.
What is inside the book
Eighteen chapters covering ASEAN as a working system, country by country, plus China, Uzbekistan, startups, and the digital economy.
- IntroASEAN at a Turning Point
Why execution, not narrative, decides the next decade.
- Chapter 1ASEAN as an Economic System
Treating the region as a working system of capital, infrastructure and institutions.
- Chapter 2Institutions, State Capacity, and the Cost of Friction
Why institutional reliability is now part of comparative advantage.
- Chapter 3Indonesia. Scale, Sovereignty, and Strategic Weight
How scale gets converted, or not, into investable depth.
- Chapter 4Vietnam. Speed, Scale, and Strategic Timing
Speed as a real advantage, and the execution tests that come with it.
- Chapter 5Thailand. Industrial Depth Under Pressure
An industrial base reckoning with productivity and political drag.
- Chapter 6Malaysia. Industry, Technology, and Strategic Trade
Semiconductors, data centres, and the policy delivery gap.
- Chapter 7Singapore. Capital, Coordination, and Control
How institutional coordination compounds into regional capital weight.
- Chapter 8Philippines. Consumption, Services, and Global Workforce Power
A services and remittance economy converting demographic weight into output.
- Chapter 9Brunei Darussalam. Wealth, Control, and the Limits of Scale
Sovereign wealth without scale: a different kind of test.
- Chapter 10Cambodia. Openness, Inflows, and the Climb to Depth
From openness to institutional depth.
- Chapter 11Lao PDR. Connectivity, Power, and the Price of Fragility
Cross-border power and rail as both opportunity and risk.
- Chapter 12Myanmar. Rupture, Fragility, and Unrealised Weight
The cost of rupture, and what unrealised weight looks like in practice.
- Chapter 13Timor Leste. Sovereign Savings, State Building, and the Post-Petroleum Test
Building state capacity ahead of a petroleum cliff.
- Chapter 14China and ASEAN. Trade Depth, Strategic Weight, and Managed Dependency
The defining bilateral relationship, and how to manage its weight.
- Chapter 15Uzbekistan and ASEAN. Reform, State Capacity, and Learning Beyond Membership
What ASEAN can learn from a reformer outside the bloc.
- Chapter 16ASEAN Startups Through a Practitioner Lens
Where the startup story is real, and where it has been oversold.
- Chapter 17Digital Economy and Fintech
Payments, identity, and the rails for the next decade of growth.
- ConclusionASEAN's Next Economic Chapter
What it will take to make the next chapter count.
Matthew Barsing
Matthew Barsing interprets how government policy, capital flows and technology infrastructure shape business decisions and regional economic strategy across Malaysia and ASEAN. Over the past 12 months his commentary has reached more than 17 million views across LinkedIn and professional networks.
- Chairman, Chemrex Corporation (Nasdaq: BGLC)
- Director, EPS Consultants
- Ambassador, IT Park Uzbekistan
- Founder, ASEAN Rising
- Author · Board member · Economic commentator
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