Bridging the digital divide: Global leaders highlight education, collaboration and innovation at Boao Forum

At the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2025, policymakers, industry leaders and experts convened to address strategies for closing the global digital divide.

Tuesday's session, titled "Enhancing Digital Capacity Building & Bridging Digital Divide,” emphasized the need for inclusive policies, public-private partnerships and education-driven solutions to ensure equitable access to technology.

Former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho opened the discussion by underscoring the historical role of collaboration between governments and the private sector in driving technological progress. Drawing parallels to the U.S. Apollo program, he highlighted how strategic investments in innovation – such as those during the Cold War space race – laid the groundwork for modern digital infrastructure.

Aho stressed that human capacity building remains the most critical challenge, urging long-term educational reforms to equip populations with digital skills.

Cambodia's Undersecretary of State for the Ministry of Commerce Svay Nakry outlined her country's five-pillar strategy to foster digital inclusion. Key measures include subsidizing internet and cloud computing costs for small businesses, expanding broadband infrastructure and launching e-commerce platforms like CambodiaTrade.org to bridge local enterprises and global markets.

She emphasized support for women-led businesses, noting that 70 percent of Cambodia's SMEs are female-owned.

Iran's President of the Center for Progress and Development Sajjad Ahadzadeh shared initiatives such as tech parks, tax incentives for knowledge-based companies and the use of open-access AI projects like DeepSeek. He advocated for early integration of programming and AI literacy into school curricula.

Panelists unanimously called for international collaboration to address regulatory challenges, share best practices and scale successful models.

The session concluded with audience questions on AI in China. Panelists agreed that no single nation or entity can tackle the digital divide alone, stressing the need for international ecosystems to ensure technology serves as a bridge – not a barrier – to inclusive growth.