Francois Duhomez’s Post

Building a Digital ASEAN: A Roadmap for Growth It's honestly amazing that ASEAN has reached its 50th anniversary. Over the years, the cooperation among its member states has brought so many positive changes to the region. And because of this, ASEAN's now a really strong player on the global stage, with stability and tons of growth potential. Right now, ASEAN's officially the world's sixth-largest economy, with a GDP of about US$2.55 trillion. It keeps growing at an average rate of 5%, and it's on track to crack into the top five global economies in the next five years. But for ASEAN to keep growing, it's gotta boost its competitive advantages. It should definitely use its position as a prime spot for investment and trade to build new, innovative businesses using digital tech. With over 630 million people, and many of them being young and tech-savvy, ASEAN is the fastest-growing internet market in the world. Every month, around 3.8 million new users are getting online. By 2025, the internet economy—which covers travel, e-commerce, and media—is expected to hit US$200 billion. This shift to digital offers massive opportunities to grow beyond just investments and trade. However, different development stages among its member countries, especially in terms of digital tech, are a real challenge. To tackle these gaps, ASEAN needs to push for sharing knowledge and building capacity. This includes getting a better grip on the digital economy and coming up with action plans that fit the ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2020. Creating a seamless digital economy also means upgrading digital connectivity. This might mean investing in broadband and digital devices. It's also super important to team up with businesses, especially micro, small, and medium ones, to close the digital gap. Some key steps could be better financial access, cost-saving technologies, and digital payment services. Governments need to put more money into education, not just the usual subjects but tech-related skills as well. In schools, a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is crucial to gear up for the digital era. Also, bumping up budgets for research and development (R&D) is key for sparking innovation. ASEAN governments should keep sharing strategies on training human capital and doing R&D. They've gotta have policies ready to support the digital economy, like promoting fair business competition, investing in digital infrastructure and education, and developing regulations to create a thriving and connected digital region. #Simplyfi #BusinessGrowth #ASEAN #Community #Opportunities

Building a Digital ASEAN: A Roadmap for Growth It's honestly amazing that ASEAN has reached its 50th anniversary. Over the years, the cooperation among its member states has brought so many positive changes to the region. And because of this, ASEAN’s now a really strong player on the global stage, with stability and tons of growth potential. Right now, ASEAN's officially the world’s sixth-largest economy, with a GDP of about US$2.55 trillion. It keeps growing at an average rate of 5%, and it’s on track to crack into the top five global economies in the next five years. But for ASEAN to keep growing, it’s gotta boost its competitive advantages. It should definitely use its position as a prime spot for investment and trade to build new, innovative businesses using digital tech. With over 630 million people, and many of them being young and tech-savvy, ASEAN is the fastest-growing internet market in the world. Every month, around 3.8 million new users are getting online. By 2025, the internet economy—which covers travel, e-commerce, and media—is expected to hit US$200 billion. This shift to digital offers massive opportunities to grow beyond just investments and trade. However, different development stages among its member countries, especially in terms of digital tech, are a real challenge. To tackle these gaps, ASEAN needs to push for sharing knowledge and building capacity. This includes getting a better grip on the digital economy and coming up with action plans that fit the ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2020. Creating a seamless digital economy also means upgrading digital connectivity. This might mean investing in broadband and digital devices. It’s also super important to team up with businesses, especially micro, small, and medium ones, to close the digital gap. Some key steps could be better financial access, cost-saving technologies, and digital payment services. Governments need to put more money into education, not just the usual subjects but tech-related skills as well. In schools, a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is crucial to gear up for the digital era. Also, bumping up budgets for research and development (R&D) is key for sparking innovation. ASEAN governments should keep sharing strategies on training human capital and doing R&D. They’ve gotta have policies ready to support the digital economy, like promoting fair business competition, investing in digital infrastructure and education, and developing regulations to create a thriving and connected digital region. #Simplyfi #BusinessGrowth #ASEAN #Community #Opportunities 

💢 We are at a critical intersection of accelerating digitalization, increasing pressures on industries and workforce transformation, while ensuring digital inclusion globally. 🌏 Singapore's greatest asset is its people, particularly in a knowledge-based economy. In this environment, talent drives innovation and growth, making it essential for the country's continued resilience, relevancy and progress. 🔦 Exciting updates from 2023/2024 Annual Report of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), showcasing #Singapore's investments in modernizing businesses, workforce skills development, digital transformation and digital economy growth. 📍 Digital Economy Growth: Singapore's digital economy now contributes 17.7% to GDP, totaling USD 85 billion. Nearly 95% of SMEs adopting digital technologies. Over 145,000 users have accessed resources through IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service program. 📍 Tech Talent Development: The workforce has grown to 208,300 tech professionals, up from 166,000 in 2018. Initiatives like the TechSkills Accelerator have trained over 18,000 individuals for high-demand roles. 📍 Safety and Trust: Singapore's introduced the Code of Practice for Online Safety, leading to a 70% reduction in scam SMSes and blocking over 390 million potential scam calls this year. 📍 Community Engagement: The Digital for Life movement has empowered over 400,000 Singaporeans, striving for continuous digital inclusion. https://lnkd.in/eXwyP_zW #futureofwork #digitaltransformation #digitaleconomy #singapore #techskills #inclusion #innovation #govtech #futureskills #futureskillsasia

We explore the evolution of the digital economy in Southeast Asia over the past few years and how it is evolving.

Chinese Numbers: Digital economy expands in scale, demonstrating enormous potential China's digital economy has expanded rapidly in recent years, showcasing significant growth potential and contributing to the country's high-quality development. The following are some facts and figures highlighting the country's latest progress in the area. The value-added output of core industries in the digital economy reached 10 percent of China's total gross domestic product in 2023, according to the latest report on the development of Digital China released by the National Data Administration. The figure showed that the country reached the target set in the plan to facilitate the development of the digital economy in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) two years ahead of the schedule. The plan, rolled out by the State Council in 2022, aimed to raise the proportion of value-added output of core digital economy industries in its GDP to 10 percent in 2025, up from 7.8 percent in 2020. Data showed that the country's digital infrastructure has largely improved, with the scale of computing power reaching 230 EFLOPS in 2023, ranking second in the world. #AI #investment #digitaleconomy #data

Thanks to Jeremy Tan for his superb sum up and key points, all of these secular trends apply to the highly cyclical maritime commerce and its technological transition for a digital and decarbonized maritime supply chain that cuts wastage and emissions. 🌏 9 of the World's Top 10 ports are in Asia which also supplies more than 95% of newly built merchant ships every year from China, Korea and Japan. 60% of global trades involve Asian ports through either their imports or exports. 🌏 Southeast Asia and its ports and preeminent international maritime center Singapore will play an increasingly pertinent role in these trades. 🌏 As Southeast Asian economies and ports grow, the trades with Northeast Asia to the north, and with Middle-east and Africa to the west are set to escalate. We welcome Tech founders, to bring their startups and solutions to uncover and discover the many hidden but lucrative B2B gems with their ingenuity here. 🌈 Welcome to Southeast Asia, and 🌈 Welcome to 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐞 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞.😀

The ASEAN digital economy is projected to be one of the top five in the world by 2025. However, it is crucial to acknowledge and address the significant challenges hindering its efficient operation, such as the digital divide and divergent data regulation regimes within member states. ASEAN must prioritise narrowing this divide and harmonising data regulation to maintain competitiveness in the global market. Don't miss this opportunity to join us at the Tripartite Forum as we work towards building a vibrant digital economy in ASEAN. Register now at https://lnkd.in/ga6fkpS2 Find out more by reading this article by East Asia Forum: https://lnkd.in/g4Stdthz

A report by Forrester on the projected growth of the global digital economy from 2023 to 2028. The top six digital economies by size are the US, China, the UK, Japan, Germany, and South Korea. Michael O'Grady, principal forecast analyst at Forrester, said: “The World Economic Forum estimates that more than two-thirds of new-value creation over the next decade could come from digitally-enabled platforms.” + The global digital economy is expected to reach $16.5 trillion by 2028, representing 17% of global GDP. + The digital economy is forecast to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.9% from 2023 to 2028. + Online retail and travel sectors are expected to be the main drivers of this growth, with CAGRs of 9% and 7% respectively. + The US and China will power almost two-thirds of the global digital economy. + The US captures 42% of global technology spending, while China leads in e-commerce with 39% of retail sales conducted online in 2024, expected to rise to 41% by 2028. + South Korea spends the largest share of its economy on R&D, focusing on areas like AI, semiconductors, 5G and 6G, metaverse, and cybersecurity. + Europe is lagging in digital investment, with tech spend growth forecasted to be significantly lower than what the European Commission requires. #Growth #Expansion #Economy #DigitalEconomy #AI #Investment #Tech #Business #Ecosystem I The Business Times I SPH Media I Vivien Ang

Our digital economy is not just boosting Singapore’s GDP, it’s creating exciting job opportunities too! We remain focused on equipping businesses and workers to leverage #AI and seize the opportunities in #tech. Read on to find out more. #SmartNationSG #DigitalEconomy #Growth

A good one on Southeast Asia, thanks Ajay Mohan. The other aspect not covered here is population, and wealth in the capitals of SEA.....Massive opportunities for consumer brands. #growth #SEA #opportunities #marketing #sales #branding