2021 was a year of turbulence and transience as countries and businesses around the world continue to be faced with challenges arising from rapid developments in geopolitics, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and climate change among many issues.
Amidst these challenges, ASEAN has become one of the fastest evolving digital economies in the world, as digitalisation takes centre stage as a key economic driver.
To understand this, we draw data from the annual AIBP ASEAN Innovation Survey of business and technology leaders from the public and private sectors in the region.
Last year, 73% of ASEAN enterprises expected investments in digital technologies to increase in 2021, and this year, there was an increase in the percentage of ASEAN enterprises who implemented digital transformation in their organisation.
The role of digital is now more pronounced than ever, with digital transformation driving the transformation of existing businesses among 91.9% of ASEAN enterprises. More importantly, for 57.5% of ASEAN enterprises, digital transformation has allowed for the creation of new businesses.