The negotiations are expected to be completed by 2025, and focus on creating a sustainable and inclusive digital ecosystem.
Asean’s digital economy holds significant growth potential due to the region’s young and tech-savvy populations and increasing internet penetration. To capture those growth opportunities, economic ministers from the region launched negotiations on the Asean Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) last month.
DEFA seeks to offer a comprehensive roadmap to empower businesses and stakeholders across Asean through accelerating trade growth, enhancing interoperability, creating a safe online environment, and increasing participation of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). As such, the areas of negotiations for DEFA will include digital trade, cross-border e-commerce, cybersecurity, digital ID, digital payments, cross-border data flows and emerging topics such as artificial intelligence.
