Overview · 9th Annual Meeting

What they actually did

On 20 July 2026 the ASEAN Smart Cities Network met on a video call. The Philippines ran it. Twenty-five cities were on the line. Draft record, 13 August 2026. Not yet adopted.

The chair was Marlo L. Iringan, Undersecretary for Local Government at the Philippines’ Department of the Interior and Local Government. He read opening remarks from Interior Secretary Juanito Victor C. Remulla: cities are where a policy becomes a service someone can use. Technology is a tool, not the destination. The Philippines wants a joint statement that pushes Sustainable Development Goal 11 — sustainable cities and communities — by 2030, and that turns the 2026–2035 action plan into work.

In the room, on camera: national representatives from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Officials standing in for Lao PDR, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, and Timor-Leste. City officers from 25 member cities. The ASEAN Secretariat. Japan’s land ministry, Korea’s land ministry, UN-Habitat, and Evercity came to present.

Three cities had joined since last September: Denpasar and Semarang from Indonesia, and Dili from Timor-Leste. That is not yet in this platform’s city count of 38, which still follows the last published monitoring cycle.

Malaysia, last year’s chair, recapped 2025. A sustainable-urbanisation forum in Kuala Lumpur in August. The eighth annual meeting, an expert talk, an exhibition, and site visits in September. Adoption of the ASEAN Smart Cities Action Plan for 2026–2035. Another round of the Korea-funded professional programme at Seoul National University, including master’s scholarships.

This year’s work

The Philippines named three things it wants done in 2026.

First, that joint statement on SDG 11. The title changed after comments. Members were asked to send further comments or to agree by 31 July 2026. If nobody objects, the text stands. This draft is dated 13 August, after that date. The record does not say whether the statement has been adopted.

Second, Smart City Talks the next day, 21 July, also on a video call: cities swapping what actually worked, under the same 2030 theme.

Third, a second ASEAN Sustainable Urbanisation Report, paid for through Australia’s Aus4ASEAN Futures Initiative. An expert group already met on 7 July to check the aims, talk through regional trends, and start country profiles.

The network’s own rulebook is being rewritten to catch up with facts on the ground. Timor-Leste is now the 11th ASEAN member. Reporting is moving from the Joint Consultative Meeting to the Committee of Permanent Representatives. The 2026–2035 action plan and the 2045 community vision have to be written in. Singapore already sent comments. Everyone else was asked to send theirs by 31 July.

The Secretariat also tabled a spreadsheet for tracking the 2026–2035 action plan — a living document. Comments by the same date.

Twenty-five cities reported on their local plans. Two points landed. A smart city is not the city with the most machines. It is the city that uses them to run services and make life better. And flood work is shifting from reacting after the water comes to forecasting before it does.

Indonesia invited everyone to a waste-to-energy forum in Jakarta, 11–13 August 2026, inside its ninth international smart city expo. Mexico City will host the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum in September 2027. Mexico City won the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize in 2024.

The 2026 monitoring report goes to ASEAN’s Coordinating Council in early November. It has to be finished in the first week of October. Members were asked to send their numbers by 14 August. The public version will not include the full project-by-project matrix. That is how it has been done before.

Japan

Japan’s land ministry listed five city projects for 2025–2026: modular housing in Phnom Penh; camera-based river monitoring in Jakarta; satellite flood monitoring in Makassar; a tourism travel platform in Manila; and a real-time crisis information platform in Timor-Leste.

Region-wide, Japan has started a transit-oriented development guidebook for ASEAN with Nikken Sekkei, Nikken Sekkei Research Institute, and Pacific Consultants. The point is a guide to building around stations that fits ASEAN legal, social, and economic conditions, and a city’s own history. It is meant for government officials, railway operators, developers, and academics.

Korea

Korea’s K-City Network has run 67 projects in 30 countries since 2020. This year it is in six ASEAN projects, including on-demand transport in Ho Chi Minh City and a city platform in Bandar Seri Begawan.

Korea is now talking about “AI cities”: using data from transport, safety, welfare, administration, and energy to predict problems and tailor services, with people still in charge. It is preparing AI-specialised pilots in both existing and new urban areas. That is Korea’s direction. It is not an ASCN decision.

Seoul National University floated a Phase 2 of the professional programme: less data-planning for working-level staff, more AI policy for working-level staff and senior decision-makers. A proposal. Not a vote.

Money, training, a ministerial idea

Evercity, funded through the ASEAN–Russia dialogue fund, wants to test a digital outcome bond in the region — green and climate finance that, in this design, is issued digitally and reported at project level. They are scoring which ASEAN countries are ready for that kind of instrument. Next they will come back to this network to check the scores and look for a pilot city.

UN-Habitat, under the Philippines’ ASEAN year, is running the second phase of the sustainable urbanisation project. Leadership training ran from March to July and is due to finish in October. Diagnostic reports for new cities are done; technical proposals are due in September. Phase 1 assistance is finished, with outputs also due in September. The second urbanisation report’s first draft is due in August. UN-Habitat wants extra help, inside the same budget, to turn those city proposals into something that can actually be built. They will come back through the Secretariat with the details.

Malaysia proposed lifting the network to ministerial level: an ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Smart and Sustainable Cities. The paper came out in December 2025. Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand have already commented. Indonesia and the Philippines said they support it. Indonesia’s caveat: ministers could meet every two years; the current annual meeting of national and city officials should stay as the working body, because that is where city plans get done. Malaysia will send a revised paper. No decision yet.

Singapore takes the chair in 2027. Date and place of the tenth meeting: later.

Homework

The meeting left a list. Deadlines are what the meeting set. This draft does not say what has been sent in since.

1. Joint statement on SDG 11Comments or agreement by 31 July 2026 · members
2. Network rulebookComments by 31 July 2026 · members and the Secretariat
3. Action-plan tracking sheetComments by 31 July 2026 · members
4. Project partnerships listUpdates by 31 July 2026 · members and the Secretariat
5. Monitoring numbersWorksheet by 14 August 2026 · members and the Secretariat
6. Digital-finance readinessCome back to the network · Evercity
7. Extra help on city proposalsCome back to the network · UN-Habitat
8. Ministerial-level paperRevised proposal · Malaysia
9. Tenth annual meetingDate and programme · Singapore

Source Draft summary record of the 9th ASCN Annual Meeting, 13 August 2026. Not yet adopted. Photo captions describe slides and screens from the call; those details are not in the written record. This page is not an official ASEAN publication.