Why ASEAN Needs Its Own IoT Backbone — And Why We Can’t Wait Any Longer

Everyone’s talking about AI, digital transformation, smart cities, and Industry 4.0.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: ASEAN is still building its future on someone else’s platform.

Yes, we’ve got smart agriculture pilots. We’re connecting devices in factories, schools, and hospitals. But most of it runs on foreign IoT platforms—hosted outside the region, priced in USD, and designed for markets that don’t reflect our reality.

And that’s a serious problem.

This Isn’t About Pride. It’s About Control.

When flood alerts, traffic sensors, school attendance logs, and energy meters send data to clouds halfway around the world, you’ve lost control of your digital future.

Data is no longer a byproduct. It’s the infrastructure of power. And platforms? They’re the operating systems of tomorrow’s economy.

ASEAN cannot afford to lease its future. We must build it.

Our Challenges Aren’t Western. Our Tools Shouldn’t Be Either.

Let’s face it.

A farmer in Perlis doesn’t operate like one in Bavaria. A barangay in the Philippines doesn’t manage emergencies like Silicon Valley does. An SME in Indonesia can’t absorb enterprise-level pricing designed for Fortune 500s.

So why are we still building with platforms never designed for our context?

ASEAN needs:

• Interfaces in Bahasa, Thai, Tagalog, and more

• Systems that work in places with weak 3G or offline conditions

• Flexible pricing for startups, students, and microenterprises

• Compliance with local laws, not just global ones

Localisation isn’t optional. It’s critical.

Whoever Owns the Platform Controls the Future

There’s a hard truth we need to confront.

You don't own your innovation when your smart city is built on a foreign cloud.

You're stuck if a global platform changes terms, raises prices, or pulls a feature. If export controls or international politics change, you’re vulnerable.

We don’t just need local applications. We need local infrastructure.

ASEAN Has the Chance to Leapfrog

We don’t need to copy the legacy models of the West. We can go straight to modern, modular, edge-ready, and cloud-native systems.

Like Africa skipped landlines and went straight to mobile, ASEAN can skip digital dependency and build its stack from the ground up.

The window is open—but not forever.

We’re Not Just Users. We’re Builders.

Across the region, talent is everywhere.

Students are building IoT kits in Johor, engineers are designing smart irrigation in Yogyakarta, and startups are prototyping edge AI solutions in Ho Chi Minh City.

We’re not short of ideas or ambition.

What’s missing is a backbone—a truly ASEAN-first platform that empowers our builders rather than just connecting their devices.

What Would an ASEAN IoT Backbone Look Like?

It should be:

• Hosted within ASEAN countries, ensuring data sovereignty

• Interoperable across national borders and device standards

• Available in multiple languages

• Capable of running on limited bandwidth

• Affordable for educators, researchers, SMEs, and startups

• Supported by an ecosystem of training, documentation, and local expertise

This isn’t a wishlist. It’s a blueprint. And parts of it are already being built.

What’s Stopping Us?

It’s not a lack of capability.

It’s a mindset problem.

Too many universities still default to global platforms, too many agencies assume imported solutions are inherently superior, and too many investors overlook local platforms in favour of international brands.

We need to flip that narrative.

What Needs to Happen Next?

If you’re in government, fund and adopt regional platforms. Build capacity internally.

If you’re in academia, incorporate ASEAN-built platforms into your curriculum. Let students innovate with tools made for them.

If you’re a startup, resist the pressure to conform. Lead the movement.

If you’re a developer, start with your community. Build open tools. Share knowledge.

We don’t need permission from Silicon Valley. We don’t need another white-label solution.

We need to build our own. Together.

ASEAN isn’t just a consumer market. It’s a producer (creator) market. But we won’t reach our full potential until we control the foundation we build on.

Let’s stop renting our future—and start owning it.

About Mazlan Abbas

Dr. Mazlan Abbas, CEO of FAVORIOT and Vice-Chairman of MyIoTA, is trying to build an IoT ecosystem that completes rather than competes. Driven by a passion for collaboration over fragmentation, he envisions a connected ASEAN where startups, universities, system integrators, and governments work together, each contributing their strengths to accelerate innovation. Through initiatives like Favoriot Academy, open platforms, and strategic partnerships, Dr. Mazlan champions local empowerment, digital sovereignty, and shared growth. His vision is clear: an ecosystem where builders support builders, where platforms interconnect instead of isolate, and where the actual value of IoT is realised through unity, not rivalry.