Seizing shared opportunities in the green and digital economies

Openness and connectivity expand the realm of shared opportunity. In that sense, they pave a path towards positive-sum growth, and all the security benefits that flow from widespread prosperity and resilience.

Still, the regional economic project must be about more than plugging in, or gaining access. It must advance an expansive agenda. The aim should be to level up and transform our economies, not just interweave them as they stand.

Indeed, our future security lies in the green and digital economies that will not build themselves. Nor will they grow naturally from a deepened web of trade and investment. We must actively realise these opportunities together, through full-spectrum cooperation across policy, regulation, and technology.

To that end, Australia will work with regional partners to advance cooperation on:

Green economies. Australia will continue to promote shared opportunities for sustainable growth, including through our series of bilateral Green Economy Agreements. To align with Southeast Asia's priorities in particular, we will emphasise cooperation on sustainable infrastructure, clean energy, and green manufacturing.

Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). As new technologies transform our respective economic models, it is important that regional growth is sustained in a converged way. Australia will therefore work with ASEAN to find ways of levelling up and connecting our economies in the 4IR. To the same end, we will pursue a series of Digital Economy Agreements across the wider Indo-Pacific.

Harmonising technical and regulatory standards. To ensure that trade and investment remains seamless, especially as we look to pivot our economies, it is important that Australia remains plugged into regional standard-setting processes. We should look to tap into and synergise with Southeast Asia's standard-setting initiatives under the Regulatory Excellence pillar of the ASEAN Master Plan for Connectivity. And we should also play an active part in shaping standards under RCEP and the US' new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

Critical and emerging technologies. Looking to the longer term, Australia and its partners—particularly in East Asia—must develop shared approaches to critical technologies, such as AI and semi-conductors. This applies both to their regulation and the setting of technical standards, as well as the security of their supply chains. We will particularly look to leverage the US' new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as the primary mechanism to foster these shared approaches.

Free and open internet. The internet is a global public infrastructure, critical to economic exchange, civic processes, and our exercise of individual freedoms. Australia will work with regional partners to strengthen net neutrality rules, and maintain appropriate limits on censorship and surveillance. We will also continue to partner with the Pacific in ensuring the region is inclusively and securely connected to global fibre optic networks.

Food security. It is important that we remain agile in addressing immediate challenges, even as we advance a long-term agenda. If left to metastasise, short-term crises will increase precarity, set back development, and suck resources away from transformative investment. For that reason, Australia will heed ASEAN's call for urgent collaboration on regional food and supply chain security, which the pandemic is straining. We will make it a priority to investigate the supply-side measures we can bring to the table, including in the Pacific, to help ease the regional impacts of food price inflation.