• All ASEAN Member States, China, sectoral bodies and special cohorts of people targeted in this project such as people who live in extreme and moderate poverty and face challenges of being laid-off posed by digital economy and work in the line of digital economy are the main beneficiaries.
• Policy-makers of all ASEAN Member States and China will also benefit from this project in order to better respond to the digital technology and economy, and promote digital connectivity between ASEAN and China.
• Private sectors, local communities, think tanks and international organizations will be indirect beneficiaries of this project since they are the potential audience of the final publications and will be invited to the symposium.

This project aims at producing a series of high-quality, authentic and reliable policy reports and publications on “Digital Economy and the Sustainable Development of ASEAN and China” that provides the assessment of impacts of digital technology and economy on ASEAN and China both at a national and regional scale and solutions for ASEAN and China to succeed in an Industry 4.0 age so as to maintain their sustainable development.

The Institute of Asian Studies (IAS) of China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), as China’s Country Coordinator Institute for the Network of ASEAN-China Think-tanks (NACT), together with ASEAN NACT members agreed unanimously, in the 6th NACT Country Coordinators’ Meeting held in Thailand, that three working groups will be organized to conduct joint researches on “Digital Economy and the Sustainable Development of ASEAN and China” with the focus on such functional cooperation areas as digital economy and poverty alleviation, digital economy and labour, and digital platforms management.

Objectives of the Project:

• The overall objective of this project is to:
  Empower all ASEAN Member States and China to be socially, economically and culturally resilient in transforming to and developing the digital economy.
• Provide a scientific and credible assessment of the impacts of the digital technology application and digital economic development on ASEAN Member States and China at a national scale and on the cooperation between ASEAN and China at a regional scale;
• Enable all ASEAN Member States and China to share lessons learned and best policies and practices with each other;
• Provide concrete, targeted and feasible policy recommendations to policy-makers of both sides with the focus on employing digital economy as a means of poverty alleviation, minimizing the negative impacts of digital economy on labour and digital platforms management.