Newsletter Contents:

• DISG Webinar Series Kicked-off: Acceleration of Digital Innovation in ASEAN and Japan’s Contribution
• 23 Demonstration Projects Selected for Japan’s Financial Support Program to Strengthen Digital Transformation in ASEAN
• New Prime Minister Suga’s First Overseas Trip to ASEAN

Last month has been very exciting and busy for AMEICC secretariat/DISG taskforce indeed for the preparation to kick-off DISG webinar. Besides, after a few weeks of hard work and dedication of our team we finally have an official website to provide visitors with a convenience way to learn more about the Dialogue and keep up to date with our latest news. Additionally, you can keep in touch with our activity by subscribing to our mailing list to get information on upcoming events or to receive AMEICC/DISG Newsletters via our website or social media pages should you wish to keep in touch with DISG activity.

DISG Webinar Series Kicked-off
“Acceleration of Digital Innovation in ASEAN and Japan’s Contribution”

As the first DISG webinar of the series, we held “Acceleration of Digital Innovation in ASEAN and Japan’s Contribution” on October 28th 2020 where we brought together the experts from both ASEAN and Japan.

The key contents of this webinar were about how to accelerate economic recovery and digital innovation in ASEAN and what can ASEAN expect from Japan along with how should Japan respond. It was our great pleasure to host five distinguished speakers as well as more than 400 participants across the region.

In the Webinar we had opening remarks from Mr. Hirose where he shared his point of view on the future of ASEAN-Japan collaboration, and the potential and expectation of DISG. And then two keynote speeches were delivered by Dr. Julia and Mr. Taketani. Dr. Julia provided her key insight into the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and the value of digital transformation in the region. Mr. Taketani shared various ASEAN-Japan collaboration activities such as supply chain resilience enhancement and digital transformation. After keynote speech, we had panel discussion started with Dr. Munir’s comment on the necessity of ASEAN-Japan collaboration, followed by Mr. Hachiyama’s comment regarding Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) and importance of cyber security. Finally, all panelists shared and discussed his/her point of view on Japan’s strength and expectation from ASEAN to Japan. The discussion was very fruitful and encouraging, where all the speakers shared the belief that ASEAN and Japan could benefit from each other even more in the era of digitalization.

Speakers

• Mr. Hirose Naoshi
  (Director-General, Trade Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan.)
• Dr. Julia Tijaja
  (Director, ASEAN Integration Monitoring Directorate, ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC))
• Mr. Taketani Atsushi
  (Chief Representative for ASEAN, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Bangkok)
• Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Mohd Munir Abdul Majid
  (Chairman, ASEAN-BAC Malaysia and Chairman, CIMB ASEAN Research Institute (CARI))
• Mr. Hachiyama Koji
  (COO, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA))

Next webinar will be held on November 16th (Mon) 10:00-11:00am (Jakarta time). The theme is “Digital Trade Connectivity”, where you can learn what Digital Trade Connectivity is and what benefits would be brought to relevant players by trade digitalization as well as how Japan can contribute to ASEAN in this field. You can register from here.

23 Demonstration Projects Selected for Japan’s Financial Support Program to Strengthen Digital Transformation in ASEAN

On October 14th, it was announced that 23 demonstration projects were selected as a first batch for the Financial Support Program for Strengthening Asia Digital Transformation (ADX). The Financial Support Program, funded by METI Japan and one of the flagship projects among ASEAN-Japan Economic Resilience Action Plan, aims to promote digital innovation to solve various socio-economic challenges in ASEAN including ones brought by COVID-19 and covers expenses for demonstration projects on digital technologies carried out by Japanese and ASEAN companies jointly. The 23 projects are well diversified in terms of themes, which includes medical & healthcare, agriculture, fisheries, tourism & mobility, environment & energy, and manufacturing & HR.

Details of the individual project will be taken up in the coming DISG webinars and newsletters.

New Prime Minister Suga’s First Overseas Trip to ASEAN

*1 https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/99_suga/actions/202010/19vietnam.html

*2 https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/99_suga/actions/202010/20indonesia.html

New Prime Minister Suga paid his first overseas trip to ASEAN countries, i.e. Vietnam and Indonesia.

It clearly represents Japan sees ASEAN as indispensable partner for bright future.

During his speech at Vietnam-Japan University on 19th October 2020 titled “Building Together the Future of Indo-Pacific”, He reiterated Japan’s commitment to ASEAN. He also emphasized in his speech “the key word” for further improving regional connectivity is “digital technology and the resilience of supply chains”, on which DISG also put high priority.

Please see here for further detail of Prime Minister Suga’s speech.

We would like to thank everyone for your interest and support. Please look forward to the future webinar series and information dissemination through newsletters and our website, SNS etc.

Stay tuned for our next month’s issue!

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Mr. KOBAYASHI Hirokazu
Chair of AMEICC DISG Task Force
Executive Director, JETRO Singapore