This article examines the role of Cultural-Based Practitioners (CBP) who operate at the intersection of state, market, and religion amid the rapid transformations of the ASEAN digital economy.It argues that faith is not an impediment to development but a profound ethical and human-centric foundation for creating service systems that honor religious identity without commodifying it.The paper introduces the CBP framework, integrating cultural skills, cultural bridging, and cultural governance to form a Living Soft Infrastructure—a model for transforming faith-based and cultural capital into verifiable social and economic value.Case studies from Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan demonstrate how individual, institutional, and state-level practitioners can sustain coexistence through transparency, justice, and shared ethical values.
Yaoharee Lahtee (Mon,) studied this question.