Digital Divide

Digital technology has grown significantly in ASEAN, but unequally. Some countries are rapidly achieving universal access and others are lagging behind. These gaps are slowing down ASEAN technology uptake: at the current pace it will take 11 years for ASEAN to achieve today’s level of internet penetration in OECD economies.

Between 2004 and 2014, the percentage of individuals using the internet increased in across all ASEAN members. However, the degree of this improvement varied significantly. The median level in ASEAN increased from 5.2% to 34.9%, yet a huge divide remains between Singapore (82%) and Malaysia (67.5%) and Myanmar and Cambodia, where the percentage of users increased over the course of the decade only from 0.02% to 2.1% and from 0.3% to 9%, respectively. Vietnam jumped from 7.6% to 48.3%, overtaking the Philippines as the third most connected country in the region.

However, the increased number of people connecting to the internet requires continuous infrastructural investments to converge with advanced economies on the technological frontier. Average international internet bandwidth has grown from less than 100 Bits per person in 2005 to 11’954 in 2014, although still with large disparities among countries. Singapore leads the way with 510Kb per person, followed by Malaysia at 22Kb. At the other end of the spectrum, Myanmar can rely on only 0.8Kb per person, making this a clear bottleneck for the country’s internet connectivity.

Digital infrastructure and usage will be strategically important for the next phase of development of ASEAN. Having already begun its economic structural transformation, ICT will be key to improve competitiveness further, to guarantee better employment opportunities and accessibility for all.