Korea and ASEAN open Manila forum on cultural intellectual property

The culture ministry said Thursday that South Korea and 11 ASEAN countries will gather in Manila on Nov. 7 for a forum on cultural intellectual property, with 53 participants in all: 30 government and public-sector delegates, 15 from industry and eight from academia.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is holding the 2026 Korea-ASEAN Cultural Innovation Forum with the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange at the Ayala Museum in Manila.

The ministry cited rapid changes in how culture is created and distributed as digitalization and artificial intelligence advance, putting the protection of creators' rights and the expansion of the value of ideas and works at the center of the debate.

This is the seventh edition of the event, which began in 2020 after the 2019 Korea-ASEAN special summit and related meetings raised the need for continuity in cultural exchange between the two sides.

After an opening ceremony and a keynote, the forum splits into four sessions covering policy, industry, cooperation and youth. Kim Chang-seop, a deputy head of the Maple Story division at Nexon Korea, will deliver the keynote on creative work and the expansion of intellectual property.

The policy session will be chaired by Jonathan Tan, director of the culture and information division at the ASEAN Secretariat, with Ari Juliano Gema, an Indonesian intellectual property lawyer, Josephine Rima-Santiago, a former director general of the Philippines' intellectual property office, and Yang Ji-hoon, an associate research fellow at the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, discussing national policy experience and how to develop cultural IP ecosystems.

In the industry session, chaired by Thai content director Panu Aree, Le Quoc Vinh, chairman of Vietnamese media company Le Group, Yeo Lay Kuan, founder of Singaporean production house Ochre Pictures, and Myanmar film producer Peter Yap will discuss the content business and the scope for expanding cultural IP. The cooperation session, chaired by Tara Gujadhur, co-founder of the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre in Laos, brings together Zainol Haqim, group chief executive of Malaysia's MyCreative Ventures, Dirce Mendes of Timor-Leste's traditional weaving association and Yonsei University research professor Ko Young-kyung.

Filipino actor and singer Elijah Canlas will speak in the youth session about building intellectual property as a young creator, and a Korea-ASEAN youth team drawn from Korea, Brunei, Indonesia and Cambodia will present ideas on the responsible use of cultural IP developed with expert mentoring.

A linked exhibition, "Gathering Point," will run at the Ayala Museum from Nov. 7 to 13, with eight artists from Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand interpreting the idea of gathering. A working-level consultative body will meet for the first time on Nov. 8 at the New World Makati Hotel, where officials from 13 cultural and creative institutions in Korea and the 11 ASEAN countries will share their activities and needs and discuss cooperation agendas for 2027. The ministry plans to develop the body into a standing platform for exchange among cultural institutions.

"Cultural intellectual property is an important foundation that protects creators' imagination while generating new cultural and industrial value," a ministry policy official said. "Through this event, I hope cultural institutions in Korea and ASEAN will go beyond discussing cultural IP and identify practical cooperation tasks together that lead to sustained collaboration."