Can Boao Forum turn Asia's ambition into armor?

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Asia's push to lead in green and digital innovation faces fractured supply chains and geopolitical divides. Can ambition outpace division? The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 tackles these challenges head-on, with Australian strategist Digby James Wren charting a path forward: turn dialogue into infrastructure, scale China's innovation engine and unlock financing for AI and green tech.

With RCEP and ASEAN as anchors, Digby advocates unified markets, seamless data flows, and grassroots partnerships. But in a world of tariffs and fragmentation, can multilateralism still prevail? Boao's answer: trust-driven progress, where talk becomes tomorrow. Next, Digby on bridging promises and progress.

Translating policy discussions into economic impact

Digby: The Boao Forum is a really great platform for Asia, and (specifically for) Southeast Asia. Translating policy discussions like Boao into actionable initiatives is not necessarily an easy thing to do, but it drives economic impact.

The things that are really important at the moment are turning dialogue into action is the key, and institutionalizing the follow-up mechanisms and working groups, converting ideas into blueprints, and developing permanent bodies.

Scalability is another thing. I think that's very important, getting things done at speed and scale are really the hallmarks of China's innovation. The Boao Forum enables a platform to do that. So, I'd like to see more innovation models that can be applied to different countries, for example, to Pakistan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

And mobilizing finance. I think finance is another area where there's not enough input, and it isn't easy to get the contacts you need at the right time for financing.

And then probably the last one is prioritizing digital and green. And I think that's really key. China's leading in that area globally, and I'd like to see that being pushed or supported more strongly right across all of the partner countries in Asia. And then I suppose the last one would be stakeholder engagement.

But progress demands more than ambition; it needs armor. From Cambodia's logistics bottlenecks to Indonesia's rail breakthroughs, Asia's supply chains are rewriting resilience. Digby cuts to the core: Strengthen access, unify systems, prioritize stability. Now, he tackles the trillion-dollar question: How do we futureproof growth in a fragmented world?

Reciprocal tariffs and regional resilience

Digby: Intermediate goods, especially Chinese intermediate goods, need clearer access to those new near shoring supply chains. That's important. Resilience of the supply chains is clearly going to have to be strengthened and prioritized. For example, some countries, like Cambodia, it is still very difficult. But there are some bright spots here, the Laos-China railway, Indonesia's railway from Jakarta to Bandung, that's an uplift.

Geopolitical fragmentation is very problematic. That fragmentation is really caused by pressure that's being caused by mostly the United States and Europe. China is providing the greatest level of stability for Southeast Asia, for Central Asia, and right across Asia.

Resilience is being built rail by rail, policy by policy. But as supply chains stabilize, a tougher test looms: Can Asia's economic alliances outpace geopolitical divides? Digby shifts focus to the rules of engagement: "Inclusive multilateralism isn't optional. It's survival." From RCEP's unifying power to battling digital Balkanization, he charts a path where Huawei bridges ASEAN and where Boao becomes the ultimate toolkit. Now, he unveils the strategy: How multilateral frameworks turn fractures into footholds.

Navigating geopolitics and economic trajectory

Digby: Inclusive multilateralism is the end way to go here. Boao needs to concentrate on the ones we do have, the networks that are already in place, like ASEAN and RCEP, that's perfect; in Central Asia, with the existing economic blocks; and also the regional ones with the partners in Africa and South America, to reduce fragmentation and create a more unified market. For example, ASEAN especially is a clear winner because it is the biggest trading partner for China.

RCEP is also providing a positive magnetic force, which is good for Australians, New Zealanders, Japanese and South Koreans.

Companies in China, like Huawei, Xiaomi and others, can all be involved in better governance, I think, communication governance and data-sharing governance. That needs to be looked at fairly closely.

We don't want the Balkanization of all these ASEAN countries just because they don't want to connect to their storage systems. We need a toolkit for that, I suppose. Boao would be a very good way to set up a toolkit for doing that.

Asia's future hinges on three pillars: speed, scale, and solidarity. From the Laos-China railway to RCEP's game-changing sway, Digby's playbook is clear: Turn debate into bridges. Turn friction into frameworks. Turn divisions into drive. This isn't about trade spats. It's about rewriting the rules. From Huawei's digital leaps to grassroots grit, Boao is Asia's ultimate toolkit. The race isn't against rivals. It's against the clock. And the finish line? A world where shared futures aren't just debated. They're built.

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