Expert analysis on regional emerging trends
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Mind the Gap: Can Southeast Asia’s Readiness Keep Pace with AI?
As frontier artificial intelligence advances faster than regional institutions and citizens can absorb it, Southeast Asia faces a widening readiness deficit. In the first of a two-part series, we examine why formal policy alone is insufficient to protect societies against rapidly evolving threats.
In the last of our six-part country spotlight series under Tech Governance in Southeast Asia-6, Lim How Khang, Assistant Professor of Law and Computer Science (Practice); Director, BSc (Computing & Law) Programme, Singapore Management University, examines how Singapore’s tech governance landscape is evolving at mid-2026.
The 2025 global pivot from AI safety to rapid acceleration is placing new pressure on Southeast Asia, creating a critical gap between the push for technological supremacy and the need for collective regional governance. This article, republished from Malaysia Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (MYCentre4IR), explores the necessity of regional cooperation to combat transboundary AI risks, and Malaysia's pivotal role as ASEAN Chair in 2025.
For the next part of our 6-part series on Tech Governance in Southeast Asia, Farlina Said of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia unpacks the key developments shaping Malaysia's tech landscape in 2025. Key developments include the implementation of the Cybersecurity Act to centralise cybersecurity leadership and the establishment of the National AI Office (NAIO) to institutionalise AI governance.
In the first part of our 6-part series on Tech Governance in Southeast Asia for 2025, Anont Tanaset, Policy Specialist at the Office of the National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council (NXPO), examines Thailand's tech governance landscape for the first half of 2025.
Interested to read the full summary of our Tech Regulation insights across Southeast Asia? Subscribe to the Tech for Good Institute mailing list to receive the latest research, insights, and updates.
Read the Thai version of this article.
This article was first published by GovInsider.
Read the Bahasa Indonesia version of this article.
Read the Vietnamese version of this article.
In the third part of our 6-part series on Tech Governance in Southeast Asia, Dr. Thao Nguyen Minh from Vietnam's Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) delves deeply into Vietnam's tech governance landscape for the first half of 2024.
Read the Vietnamese version of this article.
Interested to read the full summary of our Tech Regulation insights across Southeast Asia? Subscribe to the Tech for Good Institute mailing list to receive the latest research, insights, and updates.
Read the Vietnamese version of this article.
For the next part of our 6-part series on Tech Governance in Southeast Asia, Pierre Tito Galla of Democracy.Net.PH unpacks the key developments shaping the Philippines' tech landscape in 2025. Key developments include the enactment of the Konektadong Pinoy (Connected Filipino) Act to encourage investment and competition in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, and the continued rollout of the e-Gov SuperApp to digitalise government services.
In this fourth of our 6-part series on Tech Governance in Southeast Asia, Francis Mark A. Quimba, Senior Research Fellow, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, guides us through the Philippines' tech governance landscape in the first half of 2024.
Interested to read the full summary of our Tech Regulation insights across Southeast Asia? Subscribe to the Tech for Good Institute mailing list to receive the latest research, insights, and updates.
Hafiz Noer is a Fellow at the Centre for Digital Society, Universitas Gadjah Mada. His research focuses on the intersection of science, technology, and innovation policy. His upcoming publications explore smart city governance, symbolic participation, and government-led innovation in Jakarta.
Dr. Eric J. W. Orlowski is a Research Fellow at the NUS AI Institute, working on AI governance, policy, and the social conditions of AI development and deployment. Trained in Science and Technology Studies and ethnographic research, his work focuses on making AI governance practical and context-sensitive. He currently leads research on cultural alignment in AI systems, examining how developers can assess whether systems are appropriate, meaningful, and useful across deployment settings.
Bryan Yeoh Quan Jin is the Senior Manager for Strategy and Knowledge Leadership at MYCentre4IR hosted by MyDIGITAL Corporation.
Programme Fellow
Mouna Aouri is an Institute Fellow at the Tech For Good Institute. As a social entrepreneur, impact investor, and engineer, her experience spans over two decades in the MENA region, South East Asia, and Japan. She is founder of Woomentum, a Singapore-based platform dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs in APAC through skill development and access to growth capital through strategic collaborations with corporate entities, investors and government partners.
Senior Fellow & Founding Executive Director
Dr Ming Tan is Senior Fellow at the Tech for Good Institute; where she served as founding Executive Director of the non-profit focused on research and policy at the intersection of technology, society and the economy in Southeast Asia. She is concurrently a Senior Fellow at and the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore and Advisor to the Founder of the COMO Group, a Singaporean portfolio of lifestyle companies operating in 15 countries worldwide. Ming was previously Managing Director of IPOS International, part of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore. Prior to joining the public sector, she was Head of Stewardship of the COMO Group.
Ming also serves on the boards of several private companies, Singapore’s National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC), and on the Digital and Technology Advisory Panel for Esplanade–Theatres on the Bay, Singapore’s national performing arts centre. Her current portfolio spans philanthropy, social impact, sustainability and innovation.
