The new coalition aims to realise the full potential of the region’s digital economy
The Digital Prosperity for Asia Coalition (DPA) launched on 22 September 2022. The coalition is the first pan-Asia Pacific (APAC) focused alliance, built by home grown APAC companies for the prosperity of APAC economies. The founding members of the DPA are Accredify, AppMedia, Doctor2U, Kinobi, Opn, and ShareChat. As part of the inaugural launch the DPA has also commissioned and released a report: Prosperous APAC: Digital Economy Enablers.
Digital Prosperity for Asia (DPA)
The DPA was formed to better tap into the region’s potential for growth through collaboration and alignment on digital policies that can help unlock more economic prosperity. The APAC-centric organisation was established by a group of innovative home-grown digital companies promoting the democratisation of digital technologies across all sectors. Its mission is to support national governments and policymakers in APAC to grow their digital economies by leveraging digital technologies for economic prosperity in APAC.
Prosperous APAC: Digital Economy Enablers Report
Commissioned by DPA, AlphaBeta prepared the report focusing on the APAC region. The report was developed to quantify the untapped economic potential of APAC’s digital and suggest approaches for governments and industry to fully capture the benefits of the digital economy.
While APAC’s digital economy has emerged stronger after the COVID-19 pandemic, the report found that the APAC-11’s total digital economy (representing 11 of APAC’s largest economies Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam) is currently valued at US$586 billion. However, this is only 30 per cent of the full potential of the digital economy today. Looking forward to 2030, the size of the prize grows further – and APAC economies could capture more than $US2.2 trillion for their digital economies.
The report identifies a new approach: ‘Digital Prosperity’ as a key strategy for APAC economies to adopt to fully capture the $US2.2 trillion by 2030. The ‘Digital Prosperity’ approach combines the benefits of flexible regulations, widespread access to global digital technologies, and domestic capabilities and skills can be attained.
“This new approach aims to foster a more open digital economy with minimal impediments to cross-border data flows, while building up the local industry to ensure adequate and appropriate data management safeguards. Collaboration between government and industry will be essential for realising the full economic potential of APAC’s digital economy. We hope that this will enable businesses and consumers to access the latest digital products and services, all while striving to align with government priorities”, said Michael Khoo, Secretariat of DPA.
Currently, the coalition consists of founding members Accredify, AppMedia, Doctor2U, Kinobi, Opn, and ShareChat. DPA is looking for more like-minded APAC companies that recognise the importance of growing the digital economy for local value creation and for shared economic prosperity across APAC to join the coalition.
“Kinobi is excited to be part of this new initiative as we look forward to more exciting and collaborative opportunities to work with other home-grown Asian companies, as well as national governments to drive the use of digital technologies and allow everyone to benefit. We are already seeing thousands of users benefit from our digital solutions and tools as they improve their ability to find the right employment, and we truly believe that governments can play a more enabling role in nurturing digital ecosystems throughout Asia.” Benjamin Wong, CEO, and Co-founder, Kinobi.
In addition, DPA will work towards its goal of partnering with policymakers and broader business stakeholders to better understand the challenges and work together towards a solution. The coalition hopes to see more countries focus their efforts on promoting policies that enable cross-border data flow and digital trade; competition between businesses to strive for better quality and cost of services; drive digital innovation; build capability in digital skills and talents; and enhance digital infrastructure.
Tags: digital economySingapore
