World Economic Forum on ASEAN

The World Economic Forum (WEF) on ASEAN was held in Ha Noi, on 11-13 September. The event with the theme: ASEAN 4.0: Entrepreneurship and the Fourth Industrial Revolution attracted more than 1 100 participants and was attended by the prime ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, the Indonesian president and the Myanmar state counsellor. Digital ASEAN, one of the WEF’s flagship initiatives in Southeast Asia focuses on harmonising data policy and governance rules; upgrading broadband access, quality and speed; developing digital skills; improving co-operation for cybersecurity; and building a pan-regional e-payments ecosystem. At the end of the forum, Google announced that it is deepening its commitment to train 3 million workers from small and medium sized enterprises across all 10 countries in South-East Asia in digital skills by 2020.