ASEAN has one of the fast growing digital economies in the world, with the internet economy being on track to account for US$360 billion by 2025. Yet, the region struggles with a shortage of an estimated 47 million tech talent by 2030, in a 2022 Digital Talent Insight report. More than 50 per cent of APAC chief executives found it difficult to hire digital talent with the right skills, the same report found.

An undercurrent of this digital talent gap is the inefficacies of the education sector that focus on reskilling employees by a “just-in-time” model. Additionally, women’s participation in the digital economy has been found to lag behind, leaving men and larger corporations to dominate the industry. This panel will explore ways in which the region can enhance the exchange of knowledge, adapt its education sector, and find new indicators to monitor ASEAN’s digital economy in order to address the digital divide in the region so that nobody gets left behind.