The AI boom is lifting economies across Asia. But for Southeast Asia, it might just be a short-term blip

Experts have warned that Southeast Asia’s competitive edge - its abundance of cheap, low-skilled labour - could trap it at the bottom rungs of the AI tech ladder. To some experts, the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, or DEFA, presents a possible solution. It’s the world’s first region-wide digital economy treaty, which unifies rules for digital trade and e-commerce across Southeast Asia, and is set to be signed in November. “Geopolitical fragmentation makes DEFA considerably more important because ASEAN needs a mechanism for maintaining economic interoperability, even when its members adopt different technological alignments,” explains Tan Kong Yam, an emeritus professor of economics at Singapore’s NTU.

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