Digital transition underpins ASEAN trade, investment aims

To boost trade and investment ties, ASEAN member states are stepping up the bloc’s efforts to go digital, with Vietnam riveting its relations with regional nations to facilitate businesses and investors.

- By Nguyen Dat

The third ASEAN Future Forum 2026 to be organised in Hanoi during June 9-10 will earmark a plenary session on AI adoption.

“Speakers will examine the key issues in infrastructure, talent, data, and governance, and discuss what governments, the private sector, and regional institutions each need to do to make inclusive AI adoption a reality rather than an aspiration,” stated the organising board.

The board stated that across Southeast Asia, AI is already being deployed in agriculture, healthcare, finance, and public services, but the speed of adoption and benefits remain unevenly distributed.

“This session asks how ASEAN can accelerate AI adoption in ways that deliver tangible improvements to people’s lives across all member states, with particular attention to those at risk of being left behind,” the board said.

As the digital economy emerges as a new driver of regional growth, ASEAN has been intensifying efforts to develop cooperative frameworks aimed at digital trade and cross-border e-commerce.

ASEAN member states are now looking forward to the conclusion of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) negotiation and its signing at the 49th ASEAN Summit, scheduled to take place in the Philippines in November.

Member states noted that this collective milestone will accelerate ASEAN’s digital transformation through enhanced coordination in the areas of digital trade, cross-border ecommerce, electronic payments and e-invoicing, digital identity and authentication, online safety and cybersecurity, cross-border data flows and data protection, competition policy, cooperation on emerging technologies such as AI, and digital talent development.