Weaving space into everyday policy to make a case for public buy-in

Public buy-in for space investments varies across Southeast Asia, and governments in the region are focusing on weaving space into the fabric of everyday policy. 

For Indonesia, space is a survival tool for agriculture and disaster relief, while Singapore continues to struggle to make space feel tangible to its citizens.  

According to Office for Space Technology and Industry (OSTIn)’s Deputy Executive Director, Tiana Desker, the public could easily connect space to navigation, ride-hailing and delivery tools but were less aware of its practical governance applications. 

Desker was speaking in the “Space for Everyone, Everyday: How Space Impacts Daily Lives in Southeast Asia” panel alongside other ASEAN space agency speakers at the inaugural Space Summit in Singapore on February 3. 

The panel discussed ways to better integrate space in government policy and collaborate as a larger region. 

1. Build user capacities across multiple levels 

Speakers from Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia emphasised on the enabling role of governments to build people’s capacities to use and benefit from space-derived services in their respective domains. 

Besides making data insights accessible at different levels (be it ministry, local government, citizen or startup), Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA)’s Deputy Executive Director Dr Siriluk Prukpitikul said that her agency provides trainings for farmers, disaster managers, coastal and urban planners to leverage data. 

Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA)’s Director General Dato Azlikamil Napiah highlighted how the daily use of satellite imagery has benefited the country's rice farmers and fishermen by providing the precise data necessary to become more productive in their work, directly bolstering national food security. 

“Before they go out to the ocean to do their duties, they are already given specific data and location of where to go,” he shared, highlighting that the existing technology could be made useful to most people, but they are not aware of how to use them. 

2. Co-create solutions and value alongside users 

GISTDA’s Dr Prukpitikul and National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)’s Executive Director of the Indonesian Space Agency (INASA) Secretariat Prof Dr Erna Sri Adiningsih emphasised on the value of collaborating with youths, universities and the private sector to co-create new use cases from satellite data. 

An example of this is BRIN’s environmental monitoring system that uses earth observation (EO) data, which aims to bridge the gap between high-tech imagery and local participation. 

By collaborating with academic institutions and the local people, the agency allows locals to report directly into the system, turning local verification into a tool for refining EO data. 

Across borders, space agencies could also collaborate to develop platforms to make data more accessible for a wide range of users beyond data scientists. 

An example is the EO dashboard which was co-created by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), as well as the space agencies in Europe (ESA) and the US (NASA), which targets use among students and researchers. 

JAXA’s Advisor to the Director, EO Research Center, Dr Naoko Sugita, in another event highlighted that new findings are being generated monthly by students who were previously not engaged with EO data. 

3. Align on shared priorities to deepen regional collaboration 

As the Chair for ASEAN this year, the Philippines is pushing an ASEAN Declaration on Space Cooperation, said Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA)’s Deputy Director General for Space Science and Technology (DDG-SST), Dr Gay Jane P. Perez. 

The high-level framework would acknowledge “common challenges [in the region] that can be addressed by space solutions, which would then determine the specific collaboration pathways to pursue in the future,” she explained. 

At least within disaster response, there are existing networks like Sentinel Asia and the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to enable rapid, routine sharing of data and value-added products when natural disasters strike.  

Other "transboundary issues” that are shared in the region included monitoring maritime activity, port congestion, tackling illegal fishing, logging or mining, and air pollution. 

MYSA’s Dato Napiah underlined the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate commitments as shared priorities for the region. 

On concrete actions to collaborate as a region, GISTDA’s Dr Prukpitikul teased the idea of an interoperable platform that enables data access and sharing in the region. 

“It’s [also] important to have clear rules, especially for data use, licensing and collaborating with the private sector, to allow startups to develop applications on top of satellite data,” she said. 

OSTIn’s Desker highlighted policy exchange as another potential collaboration pathway, especially to make it coordinated for the business community operating across Asia. 

As Singapore looks to launch its space agency, she highlights that the country is looking at a pro-business development, alongside standards surrounding safety and space sustainability.