KUALA LUMPUR: ASEAN is reinforcing its commitment to a seamlessly connected region through the ASEAN Connectivity Strategic Plan, which now places digital innovation and technology adoption at the heart of its long-term goals.
According to the Plan, the strategic goal for digital innovation is to achieve a community with continuous digital innovation and enhanced cybersecurity, advancing payments and financial markets’ connectivity and efficient cross-border flow of information.
“ASEAN’s digital economy is growing rapidly, and to unlock the region’s digital economic potential and promote digital inclusion, adopting and integrating frontier technologies – such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and big data – is essential.
“While technologies and solutions offer significant benefits, their implementation poses challenges, including widening digital divide and increasing online safety and cybersecurity concerns, which will need to be addressed through advancing digital innovation, cross-border data flows, and promoting safe, inclusive access to and adoption of digital technologies and services,” it stated.
Digital innovation is one of six strategic areas of the ASEAN Connectivity Strategic Plan, which envisages connecting ASEAN by enhancing the physical, institutional, and people-to-people linkages across the region.
The other five strategic areas are sustainable infrastructure, smart and sustainable urban development, seamless logistics and supply chain, regulatory excellence and cooperation, and people-to-people connectivity, which are also crafted to support the realisation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045.
In pursuing these goals, several strategic measures have been identified, including promoting digital data governance to support inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development across ASEAN; promoting the development of and improving the use and accessibility of open data; and supporting the adoption of existing and emerging technologies by all people and businesses, with the focus on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs), women, youth, and persons with disabilities to enhance competitiveness and productivity.
Other strategies include advancing seamless regional payments connectivity; enhancing collaborative research and development of digital technology; strengthening cooperation on cybersecurity measures to protect digital ecosystems, enhance online safety, combat online scams, and enhance trust in digital services, including use of online security technologies and applications.
Also enhancing information inclusiveness and accessibility and strengthening collaboration in digital media and information literacy to foster digital literacy among ASEAN citizens and address fake news, disinformation, and misinformation; and strengthening and nurturing digital talent mobility in ASEAN.
The Connectivity Strategic Plan is one of six key documents that form the ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future masterplan.
Other documents are the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future; the ASEAN Community Vision 2045; the ASEAN Political-Security Community Strategic Plan; the ASEAN Economic Community Strategic Plan 2026-2030; and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Strategic Plan.
