Indonesia Calls for Acceleration of ASEAN's Digital Economy Pact
Jakarta. Indonesia recently called for the timely completion of ASEAN's Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) at the bloc's recent meeting.
Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto recently attended the 24th ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Council Meeting in Vientiane on Wednesday local time.
"I would like to ask for the attention of all ASEAN economic ministers regarding the development of digital economy negotiations in ASEAN, which are the first regional digital economy negotiations in the world," Airlangga was quoted as saying in a recent press statement.
The DEFA is one of the key outcomes of Indonesia's 2023 ASEAN chairmanship. The first round of talks took place last December in Jakarta. The agreement would help make ASEAN the epicentrum of growth. According to Airlangga, the DEFA encompasses agreements governing digitalization, including digital talent, digital ID, cyber security, retraining, reskilling, infrastructure, and interoperability in ASEAN. DEFA is set to double ASEAN's digital economy by 2030.
The DEFA negotiations had reached 14 percent in progress -- still far from the targeted 50 percent by end-2024.
"I encourage the negotiating team, with the support of the ASEAN Secretariat, to optimize the time this year to achieve the target of 50% completion of negotiations in 2024," Airlangga said.
To speed up the talks, ASEAN needs to implement the code of conduct that they had agreed on which is expected to facilitate the negotiation process. Airlangga also called for an innovative approach in the negotiations. For this reason, it is necessary to conduct an assessment of the negotiation process to see the challenges and opportunities to formulate a new strategy that is more effective and efficient, according to Airlangga.
“I support the initiative to take a two-stage approach in the negotiation process based on the existing categories and the readiness of each ASEAN member country,” he said while calling for a capacity-building program for all member states.
ASEAN aims to wrap up the negotiations for DEFA in 2025.
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