Jakarta, 20 August 2026: The ERIA School of Government (So G) held its Fourth Public Seminar on 20 August 2026, bringing together ERIA colleagues, partner institutions, and members of the wider research community to discuss how ASEAN can strengthen regional co-operation on artificial intelligence (AI) and the digital economy.

The seminar series promotes open academic dialogue and knowledge exchange, with ERIA So G Fellows presenting research developed during their fellowships.

For this edition, ERIA So G Fellow Mr Joël Naoki Christoph presented his research on AI, the digital economy, and regional co-operation in ASEAN.

Following opening remarks by Professor Nobuhiro Aizawa, Dean of the ERIA School of Government, Mr Christoph shared findings from a database covering all eleven ASEAN Member States, firm-level case studies of AI adoption in traditional industries, and interviews witrh stakeholders from government, industry, and academia.

Mr Christoph examined how regional policies can achieve outcomes that national measures alone cannot, and what institutional and economic arrangements are needed to make regional commitments effective.

He proposed three criteria for determining when an issue requires regional intervention: whether its benefits cross borders; whether achieving scale or bargaining power requires more than one member state; and whether the least prepared member state could determine the outcome for the region as a whole. Where none of these criteria applies, he argued that policy decisions should remain at the national level.

On this basis, Mr Christoph outlined three potential regional instruments. First, he recommended establishing common protocols for AI public procurement, enabling shared demand to turn regional guidance into binding contractual conditions. Second, he proposed a shared evaluation credential under which an AI system certified in one participating member state could be recognised by others. Third, he suggested collective terms for procuring computing power, including published price benchmarks, a reserved share for regional research, and portability between providers.

To give these measures greater institutional force, Mr Christoph proposed using the implementation programme of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA). He also noted that Article 21 of the ASEAN Charter, which provides for the ‘ASEAN Minus X’ formula, could allow a subset of member states to pioneer implementation, with others joining at a later stage.

Mr Christoph further proposed establishing an AI Economy Observatory to publish baseline regional metrics, together with a regional AI Co-ordination Office that could serve as a counterpart to the European AI Office.

The seminar attracted a diverse audience, including officials from the ILO Country Office for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, the Mission of Canada to ASEAN, the US Mission to ASEAN, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy. Participants also included former Bank Indonesia economists and representatives from the ASEAN Foundation, JICA, the Ministry of Culture of Indonesia, the Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance, AI Safety Asia, Trend Asia, Pw C, and Indonesian universities.

The seminar reflects ERIA So G’s broader aim of supporting policy-relevant research on regional issues. Through its public seminar series, the School continues to strengthen a network of experts working to advance regional public interests and community-building in Southeast and East Asia.