As 2025 draws to a close, the Asia-Pacific region is at the forefront of a global technological revolution, with artificial intelligence (AI) emerging not only as a force for change but also as a critical catalyst for economic growth, cross-border cooperation, and long-term regional resilience.
Pioneer region for AI applications
Employees in Asia Pacific are adopting generative AI tools faster and more enthusiastically than their global counterparts, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group.
Home to one-third of the world's population, the region is rapidly expanding its innovation footprint as the epicenter of the AI transition. According to a report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), this giant technology is expected to bring economic benefits of nearly US$1 trillion to Asia alone over the next decade.
In November, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) adopted a joint declaration recognizing the potential of AI to fundamentally reshape economies around the world, opening up new frontiers of innovation, increased productivity, increased competitiveness, economic prosperity and resilience.
For the first time, APEC has put AI at the core of its agenda and adopted an AI initiative to deepen cooperation among economies in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to UNDP, China holds nearly 70 percent of the world's AI patents, and the region is increasingly turning to China's technological capabilities, policy experience, and application-driven innovation to translate AI's potential into inclusive growth and shared benefits.
“China can contribute to global growth by accelerating the development of next-generation industries such as renewable energy ecosystems, helping shape international technology standards in areas such as AI governance and cybersecurity, and promoting stronger intra-Asia trade and investment flows through deeper and broader regional integration,” said Christine Susanna Jin, director of strategic communications and research at the company.
Gentara Research Institute, Indonesia.
China's AI efforts drive regional technological progress
At this year's APEC meeting, China pledged to work with all APEC members to improve AI literacy and bridge the digital and AI gap in the Asia-Pacific region. China, which has initiated the establishment of the World Cooperation Agency for Artificial Intelligence, hopes to provide AI public goods to the international community through cooperation on development strategies, governance rules, and technology standards.
This commitment is reflected in concrete cooperation on the ground. Recently, AI Singapore, Singapore's national AI program, released Qwen-SEA-LION-v4, a multilingual large-scale language model for Southeast Asia built on Alibaba's open-source Qwen foundation model to better address the region's linguistic and cultural demands.
“Our collaboration with Alibaba on Qwen-SEA-LION-v4 is an important milestone in promoting inclusivity in AI and making it more representative of Southeast Asia,” Alibaba Cloud quoted Leslie Teo, senior director of AI products at AI Singapore, as saying.
From an AI-powered smart sorting system to enhance durian grading and trade in Malaysia to a cloud-based early warning system jointly developed with countries such as Pakistan, the Solomon Islands and Laos to strengthen disaster preparedness and resilience to climate change, China's innovation-driven cooperation is expanding across the region.
In building AI capacity, China also shares expertise with neighboring countries and supports regional connectivity and joint development. China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has organized multiple AI training programs for Vietnamese officials and hosted an AI innovation cooperation workshop in November that brought together participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Mongolia.
Collaborate to share AI opportunities
“Countries that invest in skills, numeracy and sound governance systems will benefit, but others risk being left far behind,” warned Philippe Scherkens, UNDP's chief economist for Asia and the Pacific.
Reflecting this concern, the APEC AI Initiative adopted at this year's APEC meeting called for continued efforts to strengthen security, accessibility, trustworthiness, and reliability in realizing the benefits of AI for all through a balanced, human-centered approach to workforce, education, and capacity-building policies.
In the lead-up to APEC 2026 in China, further progress is expected to deepen cooperation on frontier technologies, expand digital public services, promote standards interoperability, and ensure the fair sharing of technological gains across the region.
“China has accumulated significant experience in technological innovation and long-term development,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said at the APEC informal high-level meeting held in Shenzhen recently.
“Shenzhen is widely recognized as a global innovation center, and we are ready to share our experience with all partners and contribute to the region's innovative growth,” he said. / Xinhua News Agency
