Russia, ASEAN strengthen cooperation in digital era

The international conference“Russia and ASEAN in Asia-Pacific Region: Dynamics of Cooperation, Regional Processes and the Global Context” is held from October 12-14. (Photo: VNA)

Moscow (VNA) – The ASEAN Centre of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations held an international conference themed “Russia and ASEAN in Asia-Pacific Region: Dynamics of Cooperation, Regional Processes and the Global Context” from October 12-14.

This year, the conference is dedicated to the 5th anniversary of the ASEAN-Russia Strategic Partnership, discussing topics such as new challenges and current situations of ASEAN countries; Russia-ASEAN cooperation in the digital era; political and economic results of ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit; modern regional trends; and Russia-ASEAN relations in current time.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko affirmed that for Russia, relations with ASEAN are always a foreign policy priority, which has been clearly shown in Russia's recently updated "Foreign Policy Concept".

More than 90 experts and scholars of Russia and ASEAN countries joined in 14 panel discussions at the conference.

Scholar Ngo Di Lan from the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, in his speech titled "Vietnam's digital transformation strategy" said Vietnam aims to quickly modernise its economy to gain global competitiveness and overcome challenges including the "middle-income trap", while ensuring social justice. Vietnam is focusing on building digital infrastructure and developing human resources in the field of digital transformation, coordinating multi-sectoral and international efforts to accelerate the pace of digital technology application in many aspects of social life.

Regarding the prospect of Russia-ASEAN cooperation in the above field, Lan said that ASEAN, including Vietnam, identify digital transformation to change the economic structure as a very high priority. He said the trend creates favourable conditions for Russia which has a long history of scientific and technological development, to penetrate the ASEAN market.

Meanwhile, Irina Korgun, director of the Centre of Russian Strategy in Asia under the Russian Academy of Sciences, highly appreciated Vietnam's position in the global value chain of information technology. According to her, as the electronics industry accounts for 17.8% of Vietnam's industrial sector and nearly 30% of its export turnover with a value of 114 billion USD, the country is a potential market for Russian businesses in the fields of information technology and digital transformation.

In energy cooperation, Inna Chuvychkina from the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that Russia is facing difficulties due to international sanctions, finding new markets plays a very important role to the country. ASEAN is currently emerging as a potential market with energy demand expected to triple by 2050./.