Inclusive Growth and Responsible Innovation for Southeast Asia

Innovative digital solutions are helping to address Southeast Asia’s many unmet needs, but ensuring that these solutions can be channelled in an inclusive way will be necessary for the region to maximise social benefit. We examine ways technological solutions can be managed responsibly for equitable outcomes.

By Ming Tan, Founding Executive Director, Tech For Good Institute

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is seeing tremendous growth. As of 2021,  the SEA-6 countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam have collectively over 400 million active internet users. Approximately 40 million of them started using the internet only during the last two years, and 90% of them are mobile-native, having connected to the internet for the first time via their mobile phones. The challenge for the region is to leverage the promise of digital technologies for sustainable, equitable, and inclusive growth. 

Data-driven digital solutions promise to reduce the cost to serve populations with previously unmet needs. For example, access to finance is a longstanding barrier to growth faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the region. Fintech companies have served millions of unbanked and underbanked consumers, micro-entrepreneurs, and small businesses through the use of non-traditional datasets comprising transport movements, geo-location, and in-app transaction data. In the Tech for Good Institute’s study on the Platform Economy last year, we learnt that approximately 70% of digital lending users surveyed did not have prior access to loans.

This opportunity has been acknowledged by governments in the region, who are not only developing and deploying technology solutions, but also partnering with the private sector. For example, the Indonesian government partnered with Grab and Gojek to support and distribute COVID-19 loan aid to MSMEs in 2020. The companies helped to pre-screen loan applications from their merchant partners based on data on merchants’ business activities, before referring them to the banks for a final screening. This not only sped up the distribution of aid, but also widened the reach to MSMEs.

To realise the full potential of the digital economy, however, digital access must remain a priority for governments and companies. Some 30% of the population across the region still does not have reliable access to the internet, especially in the rural areas. Furthermore, Southeast Asia has approximately 71 million MSMEs, but only 1 in 5 of them MSMEs are on digital platforms. There is thus a real risk of not fully realising an inclusive digital economy.

Successful development, deployment and governance of such products and services, moreover, must account for Southeast Asia’s unique cultural diversity and social norms. In this region of 655 million people, we comprise over 100 ethnic groups, speaking more than 1,000 languages and dialects. Available datasets may not represent the populations of Southeast Asia, and hence the products and services may not be fit for purpose.

A human-centric approach can help ensure that solutions are fit for purpose for the markets they are meant to serve. In Southeast Asia, this includes taking hyper-localised approaches to building digital solutions to everyday problems. Jakarta start-up Kata.ai is one such example, using Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology for Bahasa Indonesia. To date, the company has built Indonesia’s most popular conversational AI platform to deploy chatbots for engaging with customers – no mean feat when working with a language that offers 13 different ways to say “I.”

Regional efforts are also important to realise the region’s potential. The digital economy enables seamless cross border operations in terms of services, data and talent. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is working to coordinate and harmonise data regulatory policies so as to build a trusted environment across the region. For example, organisations can use Model Contractual Clauses to ensure that cross border data transfers can be carried out between ASEAN member states in a consistent manner. 

The diversity of Southeast Asia is both a challenge and an opportunity. Through partnership and support for localised approaches and regional cooperation, we can encourage inclusive growth for the region.

Photo by Adli Wahid on Unsplash

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Mouna Aouri

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.

Dr Ming Tan

Founding Executive Director

Dr Ming Tan is founding Executive Director for the Tech for Good Institute, a non-profit founded to catalyse research and collaboration on social, economic and policy trends accelerated by the digital economy in Southeast Asia. She is concurrently a Senior Fellow at 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.  Her research interests lie at the intersection of technology, business and society, including sustainability and innovation.

 

Ming was previously Managing Director of IPOS International, part of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, which supports Singapore’s future growth as a global innovation hub for intellectual property creation, commercialisation and management. Prior to joining the public sector, she was Head of Stewardship of the COMO Group and the founding Executive Director of COMO Foundation, a grantmaker focused on gender equity that has served over 47 million women and girls since 2003.

 

As a company director, she lends brand and strategic guidance to several companies within the COMO Group. Ming also serves as a Council Member of the Council for Board Diversity, on the boards of COMO Foundation and 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.

 

In the non-profit, educational and government spheres, Ming is a director of COMO Foundation and Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC) and chairs the Asia Advisory board for Swiss hospitality business and management school EHL. She also serves on  the Council for Board Diversity and the Digital and Technology Advisory Panel for Esplanade–Theatres on the Bay, Singapore’s national performing arts centre.

 

Ming was educated in Singapore, the United States, and England. She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University and her doctorate from Oxford.