Five people we could be hearing and seeing a lot more of over the next year.

In Southeast Asia, no currency holds more value than an idea. Whether it’s a game-changing political gambit, or bringing a bold new product to market or even a fresh and innovative approach to farming, new ideas rarely fall on deaf ears in this part of the world.

This month, to inaugurate the new year, we present five regional personalities to watch in 2010. While narrowing a field of thousands down to a mere five may seem like a daunting, even impossible task, we decided to settle on those individuals who seem destined to make headlines in the coming year. 

1. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate, Myanmar

The military junta may have muffled the protests of 2007, but Aung Suu Kyi continues to inspire unrest from the Yangon residence that has served as her prison. 

A case study in the power of an idea, the woman who was democratically elected to lead the country in 1990 has outwardly done little to nurture dissent.  Instead, her very plight, as a poignant symbol of democracy in captivity, continues to send a persuasive message to the masses.

With elections due this year, how will the junta deal with the conundrum of Aung Suu Kyi, as the Nobel Peace Prize winner enters her eighth year of imprisonment? Or will it be the Burmese people that finally, and forcefully, settle the issue?

2. Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gial Lai, Vietnam

From buying the country’s first private airplane in 2008 to luring Thailand’s top striker to the Vietnamese football league, the man known as ‘Big Boss’ certainly knows his way around a headline. In 2009, he bolstered his personal fortune by rolling out condos in Ho Chi Minh City – on property he purchased on the cheap. 

In 2010, the 47-year-old former carpenter aims to reach beyond borders, establishing a 37,000 acre rubber plantation in Laos. While Duc calls the plantation a restoration project, environmentalists are sceptical. After all, this is the same timber tycoon who recently proclaimed: “I think natural resources are limited, and I need to take them before they’re gone.”

3. Mulyani Indrawati, minister for economic affairs and minister of finance, Indonesia

Holding the reins of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Mulyani Indrawati was a shoe-in for Forbes magazine’s 2008 list of the most powerful women in the world. But Indonesia’s unflappable minister of finance also serves as executive director of the International Monetary Fund, representing 12 Southeast Asian countries. 

Mulyani’s reputation for integrity, however, will be most challenged in the months ahead. In the past, she has spearheaded innovative reforms to the country’s tax and customs office – an institution once considered hopelessly corrupt. 

In 2010, Mulyani again has her work cut out for her. Literally. According to a 2009 report from Human Rights Watch, illegal logging costs the Indonesian government more than $2 billion each year, which is roughly the same amount as the country’s annual healthcare budget. 

In addition, Indonesia’s economy continues to find ways to grow in the face of a stagnant world economy. Can Mulyani maintain that surge in 2010 – and will it provide an economic spark for other countries in the region?

4. Vicente Trius, CEO of Wal-Mart Asia

With stores planned for Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, Wal-Mart is destined to make waves in 2010 – with all eyes on its chief architect in Asia. 

While specific dates have not been set for store openings, Vicente Trius will be in charge of ramping up efforts on this side of the world over the next year, aiming to offset disappointing growth in a stagnant home market. “I foresee international [trade] will outpace the US’s in terms of percentage of growth,” Trius recently predicted. 

Will Wal-Mart’s gospel of ‘one-size fits all’ find a following in Southeast Asia? Or will it be déjà vu for the company that formed a disastrous 1995 partnership with the Lippo Group in Indonesia? 

If successful this time round, the retail giant’s Asian foray could have profound consequences for small and large retailers throughout the region, and bring others in its wake. 

5. Mu Sochua, member of parliament, Cambodia

While a repeat performance may seem like too much to expect from a woman who made international headlines in 2009, Mu Sochua’s entire life reads like a political thriller. There’s no reason to expect the activist and politician will slow down in the new year. 

Since being separated from her parents by the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1972, Sochua has managed to amass a number of accolades: founding the first Khmer women’s organisation in 1991, becoming Cambodia’s first female minister for women’s and veterans’ affairs in 1998 and being nominated for a Nobel peace prize in 2005.

Most importantly, Sochua is a builder – whether she’s raising a voice for the downtrodden and dispossessed as a social activist, or focusing on the rights of women and children as a member of parliament. And the road she’s building will lead far into Cambodia’s future. 

It’s a road that will be worthy of attention in 2010, as the country continues towards political maturity.