ASEAN’s book market represents significant untapped potential.
Malaysia’s Book City Corporation (PKB) has called for enhanced ASEAN collaboration in reading and publishing, presenting a three-pillar strategy to boost cultural diplomacy and regional literary integration.
Three-Mechanism Approach
PKB Chief Executive Adibah Omar outlined the framework at the 2026 Taipei International Book Fair (TIBE), identifying Policy and Trust (via the ASEAN Book Publishers Association), Market and Circulation (through an ASEAN Rights Fair), and People and Imagination (via festivals such as Ubud and George Town) as essential channels for cooperation.
Regional Context
Despite Southeast Asia’s substantial population and expanding reading culture, cross-border literary exchange remains limited by language barriers and fragmented markets. Adibah noted that translation presents both obstacles and opportunities for global reach, advocating responsible AI deployment to augment – rather than replace – human cultural mediation.
Digital Integration
The presentation highlighted Malaysia’s technology-driven voucher programmes (MADANI Book Voucher 2024 and Teacher Book Voucher 2025) as models for equitable access through digitised distribution systems.
The View From The Beach
ASEAN’s book market represents significant untapped potential. The region comprises ten countries with a combined population exceeding 660 million and GDP of approximately $3.6 trillion, yet intra-regional literary trade remains underdeveloped compared to European or East Asian markets.
The proposed ASEAN Rights Fair would address this gap, following models established by the Frankfurt Book Fair’s Southeast Asia focus and Singapore’s StoryDrive Asia.
Taipei’s 2026 fair, themed “Reading is Amazing/CreaTHAIvity,” gathered 500+ booths from 29 countries, demonstrates Asia’s growing centrality in global publishing. It attracted 580,000 visitors.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.
