The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Digital Office, together with the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, hosted the first Asia-Pacific Digital Transformation Forum from June 24 to 27. The forum, themed “Digital Technology for Transformation,” aimed to promote digital transformation in emerging economies by focusing on digital infrastructure (policy, digital and data infrastructure, and cybersecurity) and accelerators (digital public infrastructure, digital government, emerging technologies, digital skills, etc.).

The forum invited over 440 distinguished guests and 80 government representatives from 30 developing member countries to attend. Minister-level guests included representatives from Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Timor-Leste, and Kyrgyzstan. The Digital Office also collaborated with Google to host the Google Solution Challenge, inviting students from 10 universities across the Asia-Pacific region to showcase their AI applications. Besides, the Office organized a digital technology exhibition, featuring system integrators, digital technology service providers, and digital public infrastructure/digital public goods vendors. The Forum invited two Taiwanese companies, CHT Security and CoCoTree Technology, to participate, and also invited Secretary-General Huang from the International Cooperation and Development Fund to lead a delegation to the ministerial-level meetings.