Digital Nations 2026: building trusted digital ecosystems in ASEAN

Successfully realising ASEAN’s development plans requires concerted efforts by stakeholders to fully leverage the opportunities presented by digitalisation. This report highlights three principal measures to improve digital readiness: bridge the infrastructure gap, accelerate regional policy harmonisation, and leverage international cooperation mechanisms.

Building on the foundation of the Digital Societies series, this report marks the inaugural edition of the Digital Nations series. It explores the aspiration of governments in Asia Pacific to leverage digital technologies as a means to achieve sustainable, resilient and inclusive economic growth, based on the development of five key components of a digital nation: infrastructure, innovation, data governance, security and people.

Across Asia Pacific, stakeholders have introduced various measures to improve online safety and build trust. Importantly, the task of maintaining and enhancing trust must be viewed as a shared responsibility between stakeholders, as opposed to the sole responsibility of any single stakeholder. Given the need for open dialogue and cooperation between all parties in the digital ecosystem, this white paper highlights the steps to support existing measures and inspire new ones.