Event Highlights, Past Events

Promoting the Growth of the Digital Startup Ecosystem in ASEAN

These remarks were originally delivered at the 8th ASEAN Economic Community Dialogue by His Excellency Satvinder Singh, Deputy Secretary General of the ASEAN Economic Community. Find out more about the event highlights below

By His Excellency Satvinder Singh, Deputy Secretary General of the ASEAN Economic Community

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, a very good morning to you all.

It is refreshing to see a young and vibrant audience today. You are truly the key to our economic recovery and the catalyst for economic growth in ASEAN. Digital start–ups attract talent, funding, catalyse local innovation and most importantly create jobs. You are therefore essential in our vision to further grow our start–up ecosystems and ultimately our economy.

Since the onset of the pandemic, our digital consumer base expanded by nearly 20% to more than 360 million active internet users. Regional growth rates are expected to reach 5.0 percent this year and 5.3 percent next year, much higher than global average. Down the line, the digital economy is estimated to add USD 363 billion of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) to ASEAN by 2025.

Southeast Asia is ripe with opportunity, especially in key verticals such as e–commerce and fintech. E–commerce continues to be an area of interest for the region’s investors and entrepreneurs. Revenue for the sector is projected to reach over US$142.7 billion in 2022, and it is expected to grow annually by 15.1% by 2025. Meanwhile, the fintech sector remains a rising vertical in the region as digital payments make up the largest segment within the space, with a projected total transaction value of US$195.8 billion for this year.

Amid these opportunities, the tech scene still faces several challenges. ASEAN Member States (AMS) have varying degrees of digital readiness, and digital start–ups are so far concentrated within a few AMS. As such, there is a need to identify key factors that would promulgate and foster start–up ecosystems across the AMS.

To this end, the ASEAN Digital Master Plan 2025 places the development and growth of digital start–ups in ASEAN as a high priority agenda. This framework highlights the key success factors in developing digital start–ups – quality talent, education curriculum, incentives, regulatory environment and digital infrastructure. I very much look forward to your feedback on these key success factors to help us come up with relevant policy framework for digital start–ups in the region.

I would also like to take this opportunity to share some of ASEAN’s initiatives that could complement the framework ecosystem and substantively support the digital start–ups in the region:

First, the ASEAN Trust Mark Scheme for e–Commerce. will support the ASEAN governments to create a dynamic e–commerce environment through sharing of best practices in legal compliance, data handling, consumer protection, and anti–counterfeiting, which will help boost consumer confidence in ASEAN e–commerce companies. As one of the Priority Economic Deliverable (PED) under the Cambodia’s Chairmanship this year, ASEAN Member States are working together to deliver policy recommendations to move forward with this initiative.
Second, ASEAN is now working on mainstreaming the Digital Business ID and establishing a regionally comparable and recognised Unique Business Identification Number (UBIN) for businesses in AMS and the region. Through this initiative, we recognize that a trusted regional digital identity system for companies will help promote cross–border trade, expansion activity, and access to finance in the region.
Lastly, ASEAN has launched the linkage of the Real–Time Retail Payment System (RT–RPS) between Singapore and Thailand in April 2021, with higher–than–expected take–up volume. This will be followed by the Malaysia–Singapore linkages targeted for launching in Q4 2022. With this progress in digital financial services and regional payment connectivity, we hope that this can be expanded into a wider network of interconnected RT–RPS linkages across the region. This initiative will contribute to ASEAN’s digitalisation drive and financial inclusion by taking advantage of cellular phones to increase market access and banking services to consumers and MSMEs in far flung areas where services are limited.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me take this opportunity to thank you for your participation. I truly believe that ASEAN has come far, and its best years are still ahead of it. I encourage you to keep innovating to solve social problems, meet the needs of people, and work toward developing sustainable solutions for the future. I strongly believe that through regular engagements between public and private sector to share ideas and knowledge, we can accelerate the digital transformation and create an effective, integrated, secured and inclusive digital ecosystem in ASEAN.