Comprising eleven countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam), the Southeast Asia region has experienced rapid economic growth, emerging as the world's fourth-largest economic bloc in 2024. Important to this trajectory is the region's blue economy – the economic activities tied to coastal, marine and freshwater resources. Even as it presents opportunities, the region's blue economy faces mounting pressures and transitional risks. A range of stressors - including overfishing, marine pollution, habitat destruction and climate change - has undermined the resilience of Southeast Asia’s blue ecosystems. At the same time, the global shift toward low-carbon economies poses transition risks, as stricter climate policies and changing market preferences may reduce demand for carbon-intensive marine activities and expose certain sectors to economic disruption. Addressing these threats and transition risks is, therefore, essential for the near and long-term outlook of Southeast Asia’s blue economy.
Effective financial capital allocation is needed to navigate these opportunities and challenges, but the region faces a financing gap of nearly USD 2.1 trillion through 2030. Cognisant of this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – which brings together all eleven Southeast Asian countries, with Timor-Leste joining in 2025 – has elevated the blue economy on the regional policy agenda, with member states pursuing a co-ordinated approach since the 2021 ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on the Blue Economy. A key milestone was the adoption of the ASEAN Blue Economy Framework in 2023. An overarching policy blueprint, the Framework provides a structured articulation of the region’s blue economy priorities and elaborates on key considerations for operationalising them.
In particular, the Framework identifies “sustainable investment and finance” as an enabler of blue economy development in Southeast Asia, acknowledging that adequate and well-targeted financial resources are necessary for the implementation of the Framework’s strategic priorities. Overall, there is a strong focus on the need to reduce reliance on development assistance and instead shift towards a longer-term approach to blue economy finance and investment. This report – a landscape study of finance and investment for the blue economy in Southeast Asia – aims to support ASEAN and its member states in this endeavour, helping illustrate opportunities and challenges in diversifying away from development assistance as a source of blue economy finance.
This report starts with a review of key trends in the blue economy in Southeast Asia (Chapter 1). It then delves into the current landscape of official development assistance (Chapter 2) – the rationale being that unpacking the precise nature of finance diversification requires understanding what Southeast Asia is diversifying from. Next, it analyses the other sources of blue economy finance and investment to highlight not only their use cases, but also the barriers that the region faces in accessing them (Chapter 3). It then shifts to the solutions to these barriers – innovative mechanisms and instruments that may unlock other sources of capital – detailing case studies and lessons learned (Chapter 4). It concludes with a synthesis of findings, providing recommendations for the national and regional level, as well as for development partners (Chapter 5).