The final of three ASEAN-Australia Digital Trade Standards Initiative workshops was concluded in Jakarta this week.

As a continuation of the ASEAN-Australia Digital Trade Standards Initiative launched in March 2018, the objective of these workshops is to support digital trade standards and promote effective standardisation practices across ASEAN Member States.

With attendees from National Standards Bodies (NSBs), government and industry, the workshops explored digital trade themes such as digital transformation, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cyber security, and more. For NSB staff the workshops also went in-depth into topics like effective stakeholder engagement, facilitation of committee meetings, and other principles of good standardisation practice.

The initiative is being led by Standards Australia but includes collaboration and support from ISO, IEC and other international partners. ASEAN Member States were also supported to attend the PASC Annual General Meeting in Wellington, New Zealand in April 2019 and the ISO Workshop: Disruptive technologies and new service models: the role of International Standards in Singapore in June 2019.

To maintain the momentum on this initiative a subsequent phase is currently being finalised for 2020.