Here’s how soft power can help Asia’s Century get back on track

Does the 21st century still belong to Asia?

Announced in 2011 by the Asian Development Bank, Asia’s Century was a plan to realize the region’s potential and recover the dominant economic position it once held in the world – before industrialization.

Asia currently contributes close to one-third of global GDP. But, at the quarter-way mark, whether the continent’s goals are still on track is a matter of debate – and it was a topic of discussion at this year’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, the World Economic Forum’s ‘Summer Davos’, which focuses on how entrepreneurship and emerging tech can drive global economic growth.

In a panel session entitled ‘Is Asia’s Century at Risk?’, CNBC anchor Chery Kang led an in-depth discussion on how the economic model is evolving, inviting insights from the following participants:

Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of Viet Nam, Office of the Government of Viet Nam; Sunil Handunneththi, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development of Sri Lanka; Paul Chan Mo-po, Financial Secretary, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; and Rahayu Saraswati Djojohadikusumo, Deputy Chairperson, Great Indonesia Movement Party.

Here are some of the key themes to emerge from the session:

“It’s surreal, almost, to see history unfolding in ways that we’ve never seen before,” said Indonesia’s Rahayu Saraswati Djojohadikusumo. All the panellists referred to the challenges facing the world right now – from geopolitical tensions and trade wars to the climate crisis and rapid technological advancements – and how they were impacting the world economy.

Recent McKinsey data shows that growth among Southeast Asian economies had slowed in the first quarter of 2025, while Paul Chan Mo-po said that Hong Kong’s stock market performance had so far retracted by 3%, compared to 2024 figures.

“Asia has benefitted from globalization for decades now,” said Kang, but the panel agreed that the status quo was being challenged and that globalization was having to evolve.

Challenges are also opportunities, said Viet Nam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. “We have an opportunity to look at ourselves, to look at how the world is evolving, to look at how we should restructure our economy.”

Turning to solutions, Prime Minister Chinh outlined five key tenets to achieve this economic evolution:

1. The pursuit of peace and stability to protect “the fundamental values of international relations”.

2. Be leaders in innovation, science and the green transition: Asia “must shift from being the factory of the world to a global hub for innovation and digitalization”.

3, Deepen integration of value chains and “economic linkages”.

4. Foster entrepreneurship, create opportunities for young people and encourage start-ups and SMEs.

5. Promote inclusive links to “ensure that human beings are at the heart of all policies and strategies for development”.

Minister Sunil Handunneththi pointed out that while Sri Lanka was a small country, it cooperated and joined forces well with other Asian nations, especially China. “We want to identify several factors that could delay a full realization of what is going on in the Asian region, especially in the economic slowdowns in our countries.”

Indonesia is in a strong position for growth, said Djojohadikusumo. “We're the fourth largest population … and have also one of the biggest demographic dividends, with 72% of our population at productive age – 53% are Gen Z and Millennials.” What this means, Djojohadikusumo said, is that “we have plenty of opportunity to reach our full potential”.

Chinh said Asia’s “geostrategic location, its vast and young population, its huge market, its strong economic growth prospects, its advancing middle class” are all contributing to a bright future for the region. “It also has an infrastructural, public service, finance and banking system going from strength to strength, from maturity to maturity, an increasingly stable social framework and, most of all, Asia is endeavouring to advance in harmony with the rest of the world.”

Beyond the more obvious influencers of economic growth, Kang was keen to explore the potential of Asia’s soft power. Coming from the world of K-pop, a cross-over cultural phenomenon from South Korea, Kang sees Asia as “an emerging star” in this area and recognizes how soft power can “bring in a different level of understanding between different countries and regions”.

Djojohadikusumo agreed, saying so much of Asia’s soft power remains “untapped”. She gave the example, in Indonesia, of the 183 million gamers (in a country of 280 million), the creative economy there and how investors “need to find a way to make intellectual property bankable”.

Tourism is key to Asia’s soft power, said Minister Handunneththi, while reflecting that there have also been “so many problems” associated with it, such as human trafficking, the illegal drugs industry and a migrating workforce. Natural disasters are another challenge, he said, but “we want to overcome these difficulties” and urged investors to see the potential in Sri Lanka’s soft power.

For Prime Minister Chinh, “our soft value, I understand it a little bit more broadly. It means to build a right direction, a right line of action for the development of a country,” he said. “The heroic history of a country is also its soft power … Every time challenges arise, every time risk arises, we stand together, we stand as one; we harness, we tap into that wellspring of national power.”

Whether tapping into soft or hard power, Djojohadikusumo arguably spoke for all the panellists when she declared: “Asia’s Century is not ending – we are just beginning.”