The Australia-ASEAN Special Summit of 10 neighbouring countries are to be held in Sydney in mid-March  presenting huge opportunities for Australian tech and innovation, and we are looking forward to engaging  with the delegations that will be here .

ASEAN’s chair revolves annually, with Singapore at the helm in 2018.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a press conference to mark the start of its term as chair that it would “do its best to take the group forward” focusing on the themes of resilience and innovation.

Tech and innovation themes include cybersecurity to AgTech and food security, to data science and climate change, to advanced manufacturing, data science and digital supply chains. .

“We hope during Singapore’s term as chair, we will start some ASEAN projects that will strengthen our collective resilience against common threats such as terrorism, cybercrime, and climate change,” Mr Lee said.

“We also hope to promote schemes that capitalise on innovation, to help ASEAN economies to innovate and to use technology, to make us a more dynamic and connected community.”

When the leaders of the ten ASEAN member countries arrive in Sydney for a weekend meeting in early March, it will mark the first time the Australia ASEAN Special Summit has been held in this country.

The centrepiece of the summit is the leaders’ meeting and retreat, while a Business Summit, SME Summit and Counter-Terrorism Conference will be held in the week preceding..

The Business Summit attach ASEAN-Australia Special Summit is stitched up by the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group and the Export Council of Australia. 

This is a good time to host “a future of work summit” .

There are 660 million people who live in the ASEAN member countries with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion. The bloc is growing at an average 4.6 per cent.

There are 100,000 students from ASEAN countries studying in Australia at any given time. More than 890,000 Australians claim an ASEAN heritage.

We look forward to be celebrating our close ties to Singapore and our ASEAN neighbours and cheering the arrival of their leadership delegations in to Sydney in March..