Technology powerhouse Microsoft has collaborated with the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy to establish the APAC Leaders Digital Alliance.
Stemming from the impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic, the reliance on digital platforms and services saw an unprecedented rise in its necessity and adoption among various fields, giving rise to the newly formed body.
With the theme of “Digital Growth: Harnessing the Power of Data for National Recovery”, the alliance’s inaugural meeting facilitated dialogue on digital adoption among public leaders, top global members of the academe, subject matter experts, and policymakers from Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
According to a transformation imperative study conducted by The Economist, within the APAC region, governments and other organisations are constantly thinking about digital means of economic recovery and to maintain operations as the pandemic continues on.
A survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit also showed that 8 out of 10 government respondents saw an uptick in digital investments since the pandemic, acknowledging how digital adoption would be of benefit to citizens.
What the pandemic managed to underscore, according to NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics and Dean, Danny Quah, is the need to go digital.
“This global pandemic has made ever more apparent one of the most powerful and quietly pervasive underlying trends of our lifetime: The imperative for ever greater digitisation. It is not just public health disruptions, but also economic and social forces driving the world in that direction. To advance, we need new ways to build trust and collaboration among private industry and public service leaders,” he explained.
Meanwhile, IDC Asia Pacific Public Sector Head Gerald Wang spoke of how security, supply chain crisis, and sustainability are among the top concerns of global leaders, thus making it imperative that IT leaders focus on “digital cognizance and awareness through public policies and regulations; digital asset governance; digital investments and traceable performance metrics for constituents’ and taxpayers’ accountability; and continually innovating with emerging technologies like 5G, next-gen cloud computing, cybersecurity, blockchain, AR/VR, IoT and edge computing, and quantum computing”.
Commenting on the momentous event, Microsoft Malaysia Managing Director K Raman spoke of how Malaysia’s economic bounce back from the pandemic hinges on technological options and solutions that key decision-makers in both the public and private sectors must decide upon.
“In Malaysia, the theme of partnership was central to our Bersama Malaysia initiative, and through this, we formed the MyDigital Alliance Leadership Council to collaborate on cloud-first and digital-native policy recommendations for the nation. We are thrilled to now see this theme of partnership being extended to our neighbours in the region via the APAC Leaders Digital Alliance, to drive real and positive change,” Raman said.
As for Jean-Philippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President, National Transformation Partnerships, Microsoft, the collaboration was a welcome first for the company that bolsters its “digital-first” agenda for the APAC region that aims to support digitization efforts, as well as partnerships among the public and private sectors.
“As our countries forge ahead toward a post-pandemic world, Microsoft is committed to supporting governments as a trusted strategic technology advisor and provider as they harness the power of Cloud and AI for inclusive national economic recovery and resilience,” Courtois said.
Capping off the discussions, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the School of Continuing and Lifelong Education at the NUS were tasked with creating a paper on national recovery and the digital economy that will be utilised as a digital adoption roadmap among the member nations.
