Overview

Every community is attempting to balance the potential of innovation with the risks of digital technologies. Regardless of economic status or political leaning, our undeniably interconnected digital future lacks consensus around a global people-centric vision and the guardrails necessary to ensure equitable and sustainable innovation. Accelerating digital development and internet connectivity have improved financial, environmental, health, and education systems. However, digital transformation efforts must also contend with political and social fracturing, growing economic inequalities, increased state-sponsored surveillance, and extractive or exploitative data-use practices.

The Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI) at New America set out to explore the Lower Mekong Region’s digital transformation for a more prosperous, sustainable, and open digital future—one that ideally places people first and uses tech responsibly. Keeping in mind the complexities surrounding regional technology development and deployment, as well as the limitations in research, this report has three objectives:

• Conduct a landscape analysis of the opportunities and challenges of technology use in the Lower Mekong Region, the influence of outside nations and tech companies, infrastructure and internet access levels, how stakeholders are using technology for social and financial development, and how technology is furthering regional cooperation;
• Explore the digital technology governance models, including existing legal and regulatory frameworks (or lack thereof) on cybersecurity, privacy, and content; and
• Spotlight key opportunities surrounding digital transformation by identifying deployable and replicable digital solutions and developing recommendations directed toward stakeholders in this region, including public interest technologists and development advisers.

This report makes use of existing qualitative and quantitative research from a broad array of public sources, including organizations focused on development, economics, human rights, and technology policy. In addition to secondary research, this report was informed by interviews with local and remote public interest technologists, researchers, and development actors to augment areas of focus. Interview responses were aggregated, organized, and coded to reveal insights. All interview responses are attributed to anonymous sources due to regional political sensitivities. The interviews regarding Myanmar produced the least extensive information of the five countries, given limited access to the region during a period of intense turmoil.

The most significant challenge to navigating this research process was the lack of reputable, up-to-date, and complete data. Thailand and Vietnam have more readily available information than Cambodia and Laos. Myanmar has the most limited information available. This created a patchwork effect on sources and citations. The research team addressed this hurdle by collecting information and statistics from multiple sources to develop the most accurate picture of the region possible. In some cases, English-based regional news sources for government announcements were used, knowing that these sources may be biased. All five countries have abysmal independent and open press rankings from Reporters Without Borders—most are in the bottom quartile of the World Press Freedom Index—which made fact-checking diligence even more complicated.

Data and development indicators from the United Nations (UN) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were helpful in identifying regional progress and challenges. This report makes comparisons to common standards among OECD countries. However, these comparisons are limited by the fact that the deployment of digital solutions often depends upon a country’s level of economic development, wealth, and infrastructure—categories in which the identified countries of the Lower Mekong Region predominantly lag behind OECD countries.

Given the scope of the subject addressed, the myriad of serious complications in the region, and the limitations mentioned above, this report should serve as a jumping-off point for further research into areas of opportunities and challenges to digital transformation and technology deployment in the Lower Mekong Region.

A complex set of interrelated issues impacts digital transformation in the Lower Mekong Region of Southeast Asia, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Envisioning a prosperous, sustainable, and more open digital future for the more than 245 million people living there will require a greater focus on human rights, inclusion, accessibility, digital infrastructure, and governance. While there is substantial room for improvement in people-centered outcomes both on- and offline, the region has nurtured significant social, economic, and technological growth in recent years to develop and advance their innovative digital ecosystems and support large-scale digital transformation.

Fueled by expanded access to mobile phones, social media platforms, and 5G networks, the governments of the region are in the process of developing their regulatory approaches. Choices to foster or hinder a more people-centered and innovative future are significant and have major human rights implications. Thailand and Vietnam, with nearly 70 percent of the regional population, are leading the Lower Mekong Region’s digital development efforts, followed by Cambodia and Laos. Myanmar is more difficult to assess and is, in many ways, a regional outlier due to years of turmoil, ethnic violence, the 2021 military coup, and the resulting isolation.

Digital transformation in the region presents an opportunity to design for a more resilient future—for an internet that is open, trusted, and provides safe means for communication, commerce, and education. However, there are economic and political implications and consequences, as well as a confluence of competing factors, incentives, and external influences that makes the digital future of the region uncertain. Digital transformation efforts could lead to greater transparency and accountability in systems and institutions, while improving access to education, health, and economic opportunities for individuals and communities. At the same time, without necessary safeguards, digital tools could make it easier for governments to exert additional control and repression. Actions taken now and the values and priorities instilled within digital solutions at the onset of development and deployment will determine the path the region takes.

This report intends to serve as a resource for public interest technologists, development advisers, researchers, and government officials looking to better understand and address the myriad of issues complicating the regional digital landscape.

Ten Key Digital Transformation Considerations in the Lower Mekong Region

1. An increase in internet connectivity has enabled millions of people to gain access to online services; created science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and job opportunities; offered new ways to participate in the economy; and opened digital civic spaces. These benefits of connectivity need to be cautiously assessed alongside increasingly heavy-handed governments harnessing digital platforms and tools to control and repress information and people.
2. Geopolitical influences play a complicated and outsized role in regional decision-making. Governments in this region are accustomed to balancing various external pressures and influences —which are often conflicting—against internal development priorities. The United States, China, the European Union (EU), and regional countries like Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore frequently leverage investment and aid to help guide development while also establishing major economic and digital ties associated with trade opportunities, market share, high-tech manufacturing and parts, and tech talent.
3. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated regional digital transformation, amplifying reliance on public and private digital infrastructure. With the pandemic limiting in-person activities and everyday interactions, the number of online users and their digital literacy increased significantly, as many communities quickly created and deployed digital solutions to meet urgent needs.
4. Digital divides in the region are reinforced by limited digital access, literacy, and skills—disproportionately affecting women, low-income individuals, and those living in rural communities. Together, these challenges, along with limited trust in technology and government use of it, present significant barriers to the accessibility and effectiveness of digital solutions, furthering digital divides.
5. Regulatory regimes are underdeveloped and vary country to country, but they generally show an increasingly authoritarian approach to digital governance. Governments in the region have enacted laws contributing to pervasive internet freedom and human rights concerns, curtailing fundamental freedoms.
6. Social media and messaging platforms have an outsized impact on the region—particularly Meta’s Facebook, which has historically controlled a disproportionate share of the market, amplifying both its positive and negative effects. Users in the region are reliant on the free services provided by social media platforms and messaging apps to access social spaces and informal online commercial spaces. However, social media is also used as a tool, in some cases by governments, to surveil or improperly access user data, censor speech, and amplify violence.
7. Innovative digital environments and a favorable tech start-up culture are powered by digital entrepreneurship, government support (such as favorable tax and visa regulations), and an emerging sector with lots of potential. However, lack of coordination, investment, digital literacy, and capacity still limit digital ecosystem growth.
8. One of the most prominent and promising areas of digital solutions in the region is in economic and financial technologies (fintech) such as online banking, digital payments, mobile e-wallets, and QR codes. There is a pronounced regional push from private companies and governments to enable easy, efficient, and interoperable cashless payments, helping to advance financial and economic inclusion.
9. Digital public infrastructure (DPI) and e-government solutions can help enable the effective provision of essential society-wide functions and services in the public and private sectors. However, governance structures, human rights concerns, abuse as a result of access to digital data, and low country capacity can limit the safety, efficiency, and accessibility of DPI solutions deployed in the region.
10. Multi-stakeholder collaboration and engagement is essential in region-wide deployment of digital technology designed to address common economic and social challenges, especially in the fields of public health, economic mobility, agricultural technology (agritech), environmental management, and disaster readiness. An existing culture of regional partnerships and investments through organizations like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations, and the World Bank—particularly around environmental monitoring and Mekong River management—may help strengthen systems reliant on shared data, open code, and trust.

This report utilized openly available materials and interviews with civil society and development leaders active in the region to compile the following recommendations on how to prioritize actions for a more people-centered, whole-of-society digital transformation. Many of the recommendations encompass best practices that can apply more generally to all nations balancing the potential of innovation with the risk of misuse or alternative uses of digital technologies.

Broad Recommendations for People-Centered Digital Development in the Lower Mekong Region

• Elevate human rights, security, and privacy through safeguards, education, and incentives to increase trust and transparency.
• Address insufficient infrastructure and access inequality by prioritizing the installation of fixed and mobile broadband and other hard infrastructure, particularly for women, older populations, and rural residents.
• Encourage user-centered design, agile development practices, and open source code to improve digital solution accessibility, functionality, and replicability.
• Amplify the positive elements of thoughtful digitization by boosting digital skills and literacy through educational and professional opportunities to safely prepare all communities and industries for greater economic and digital transformation.
• Commit to a whole-of-society approach to enable and strengthen innovative digital ecosystems, such as online marketplaces, innovation labs, and government-sponsored technology-focused institutions, fostered by cross-sector and multi-stakeholder collaboration when possible.
• Prioritize good governance, regulation, and frameworks for technology. The Lower Mekong governments have not historically prioritized open data and interoperability, or successfully protected the safety and privacy of users, and they appear to be continuing down a repressive path.
• Design and deploy digital solutions, emerging technologies, and digital public infrastructure to unlock social and economic development; better coordinate environmental and sustainability efforts; and increase equality, privacy, and security across the population, especially vulnerable communities.

The scope of this report is significant. Readers are encouraged to navigate the table of contents for links to specific sections. The report is accompanied by a collection of complementary materials, including:

• Country Briefs that provide a digital overview, identify challenges to digital transformation, and outline key areas to watch in specific areas for each of the five countries.
• A region-specific Catalog of Digital Solutions in the Lower Mekong Region curated to fill an information gap on the use of digital solutions to address social, economic, and sustainability challenges. The searchable list includes a number of solutions, many of them open source and replicable.
• An Additional Readings list of resources on technology and digital public infrastructure in the region.