Despite the great progress in deepening regional connectivity through information and communication technologies, Asia and the Pacific is still the most digitally divided region in the world, with less than eight per cent of the population connected to affordable and reliable high-speed Internet. As a result, millions of people are shut out from transformative digital opportunities in education, health and financial services. Women and girls, in particular, have lower levels of access to broadband Internet and other knowledge-enhancing technologies. The Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway initiative aims to increase the availability and affordability of broadband Internet for all people across Asia and the Pacific.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation and underscored its importance for mitigating the economic slowdown, sustaining wellbeing, and speeding up recovery. Governments, smart policymaking, as well as regional cooperation play an essential role in helping to both enable digital transformation to occur and in facilitating access to technology.
As the novel coronavirus has undertaken its deadly migration across the globe, most attention has understandably focused on its immediate public health consequences, as well as the downstream economic consequences of the lockdown measures needed to contain it.
A less remarked development, however, has been the changes to everyday life that have resulted from the contagion. In particular, a new report reveals the extent to which COVID-19 has driven a dramatic uptake of digital technologies across Southeast Asia, accelerating a profound shift that was already underway.
In conjunction with 70th Anniversary of the establishment of Indonesia-Thailand Diplomatic Relations in 2020, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Bangkok will organize a webinar on “Indonesia Investment Promotion on Digital Economy” on November 3rd 2020. This event aims to introduce the development of Indonesian digital economy which offers plenty of opportunities to strengthen investment cooperation between Indonesia and Thailand during the Covid-19 recovery process, which also covers the enhancement of business relations between Indonesia and Thailand’s startup companies.
ESCAP Secretariat is organizing this virtual Experts Group Meeting (EGM) in preparation for the SPECA Economic Forum and SPECA Governing Council, scheduled on 19-20 November 2020.
The world in 2020 is in a state of flux. While much progress has been made globally over the past ten years in expanding access to, and adoption of, broadband infrastructure and services, significant challenges remain in tackling digital inequalities, addressing the current widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in accelerating efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
