JAKARTA, 26 May 2026 – Policymakers from across ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, ASEAN Economic Community, and ASEAN Political-Security sectoral bodies, alongside external experts, attended the ASEAN Regional Workshop for Development of The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Outlook (ADO) Volume 2 on Digital Human Security Challenges, held from 25 to 26 May 2026.
The workshop was commenced with opening remark by Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, San Lwin, who emphasised digital safety and security are fundamental to regional cooperation in the digital era and critical to realising the full benefits of digital transformation.
Ambassador of the Mission of Canada to ASEAN, Ambra Dickie, also delivered welcoming remarks. She underscored both the significant development and the serious risks brought by digitalization, highlighting Canada’s commitment to supporting ASEAN through policy engagement, regional cooperation, capacity building, and cybersecurity norm alignments.
The objectives of the workshop were to present the methodology and preliminary findings of the ADO, and to solicit constructive feedback through knowledge-sharing discussions to enhance the robustness and quality of the study and to ensure policy relevance to ASEAN priorities and regional needs. The workshop served as part of the data gathering process to inform the development of the ADO Volume 2.
The outlook focuses on impact of digitalisation to human development in three thematic areas; artificial intelligence and frontier technologies; cybercrime and online scams; and platform governance and information integrity, aiming to provide a comprehensive analysis of digitalisation and offer an outlook for inclusive and sustainable development in ASEAN.
The ADO volume 2 is supported by the ASEAN-Canada Trust Fund and is implemented by The Asia Foundation, in close consultation with the ASEAN Secretariat.