New technologies drive a vibrant Asia-Pacific

Editor's Note: The 2026 Northeast Asia management and economics symposium, themed "Economic Cooperation in Northeast Asia Against the Backdrop of a Dynamic Asia-Pacific Region" was co-organized by the International Business School of Beijing Foreign Studies University and China Daily Opinion Channel on Friday in Beijing. Below are excerpts of five experts' speeches.

Leverage comparative strengths to build Northeast Asia's AI cooperation

Artificial intelligence has emerged as the central arena of global tech competition. Leadership in AI development is crucial for nations to enhance their future strength and international competitiveness. Major players are devising strategies and engaging in extensive contests over algorithms, computing power, data, talent, industrial ecosystems and even international rule-making. By seizing AI opportunities and strengthening regional cooperation to advance technological innovation and industrial application, Northeast Asian countries can gain a strategic edge in a rapidly changing global landscape.

The AI industry chain consists of several layers: the upstream foundation layer, which includes hardware equipment and data services; the midstream technology layer, characterized by algorithm models and knowledge graphs; the downstream application layer, which encompasses areas such as smart education and embodied intelligence; and the governance layer, which involves data regulations and ethical standards. By analyzing Northeast Asian countries and regions layer by layer in terms of their global and regional positioning, market share, technological capabilities and comparative strengths, and by identifying complementary and competitive segments, we can better pinpoint the priorities and challenges of regional cooperation.

The global AI industry chain is currently defined by two innovation cores — China and the United States — with multiple nodes and differentiated layers. China, leveraging its vast market, data and engineering capabilities, has achieved significant scale advantages in foundational models, sector-specific applications, AI hardware assembly and research patent output, especially in the midstream and downstream sectors. Other key players, including the European Union, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and Israel, hold crucial positions in niche segments such as industrial vertical AI, HBM memory chips, upstream materials, basic research and AI regulatory frameworks.

In Northeast Asia's AI industrial cooperation, economies have complementary capabilities, with some good at upstream materials, some adept at memory chips and China at complete-device manufacturing and diverse application scenarios. Meanwhile, the core potential of Russia and Mongolia lies in their green-energy computing power.

AI cooperation in Northeast Asia faces significant obstacles, including technology controls disrupting the industry chain, disagreements over cross-border data rules and institutional fragmentation. These challenges raise the barriers to collaboration.

Therefore, the path forward should emphasize hardware synergy as the foundation, applications as the frontrunner, green computing power as the sustainer and governance and talent as safeguards. This approach can transform industrial complementarity into regulatory mutual trust, and facilitate the transition from low-hanging to high-hanging fruit.

Ni Yueju is a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Region's AI cooperation goes beyond competition

The 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in Gyeongju, the ROK, adopted the APEC AI Initiative for 2026-2030 to enable AI cooperation. The 2026 APEC Digital and AI Ministerial Meeting in Chengdu further outlined key priorities, including industrial application, capacity building, safety and trustworthiness, and inclusive cooperation. We eagerly anticipate the upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen to translate the existing consensus into tangible cooperative outcomes. The consensus on AI cooperation established under the APEC framework also provides crucial guidance for deepening collaboration in Northeast Asia.

The region boasts a robust industrial foundation with complementary strengths in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, industrial robots and AI application scenarios. However, it faces common challenges such as industrial transformation, upgrading and population aging. There is potential to deepen cooperation in three key areas.

Enhance application cooperation amid technological competition. The region should capitalize on each economy's industrial strengths and deepen practical collaboration in specific areas, such as AI-driven manufacturing transformation, industrial robots and smart manufacturing.

By encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises, local governments and research institutions to participate, AI technologies can be integrated into traditional manufacturing and public services. This approach allows more businesses and social groups to benefit from AI development, narrowing the AI application gap. In this way, AI cooperation extends beyond a few leading companies to include broader participation.

Despite institutional differences across the region, common ground can be found by respecting each other's diverse development models and policy choices. This mutual respect enables regional players to better utilize existing cooperation mechanisms and steadily expand collaboration in areas such as talent training, capacity building, AI safety, and practical applications.

By using industrial applications as a lever, players in Northeast Asia can enhance the exchange of experiences in building AI ecosystems and leverage their respective strengths. This collaborative approach will jointly advance regional industrial upgrading and economic prosperity.

Hyun Sang Baek is the chief representative at the Beijing Office, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

Turn interdependence into purposeful cooperation among the APEC economies

Where will our next opportunity come from, and what could put it at risk? The answer will be shaped not only by economic growth, technology, trade and investment, but by the quality of our relationships. Whether we are building a company, attracting investment, managing risk, developing talent or entering new markets, success will depend on the ability to cooperate across differences.

That is why APEC matters to all of us. It is not just a forum for economies and policymakers but also part of the environment in which businesses operate, workers build their futures and communities share in economic progress. It helps create the conditions for more open markets, stronger connections, greater resilience and wider opportunities.

Asia's prosperity will depend on whether it can turn interdependence into purposeful cooperation — and ensure that the benefits of growth are shared more broadly.

What will determine Asia's prosperity over the next decade? Economic strength, trade, investment and technological progress will all matter. But so will the ability to trust one another, cooperate across differences and make decisions that create value beyond ourselves. Economic strength creates opportunities, technology creates possibilities and trade connects markets. But trust enables cooperation to endure, and responsible leadership helps ensure that prosperity is shared.

APEC is a forum for economies to exchange experience and pursue practical cooperation while recognizing different circumstances and priorities. But connection does not automatically produce cooperation, and growth does not automatically produce shared prosperity. We must make deliberate choices about how we manage differences and distribute the benefits of progress.

For Asia to prosper, openness must operate at three levels: openness between economies, through trade, investment, connectivity and dialogue; openness between businesses, enabling companies of different sizes and markets to collaborate and participate in regional value chains; and openness in our thinking, so that we recognize emerging risks and adapt to new realities.

Cooperation is equally important, especially when interests differ. Competition can encourage efficiency and innovation, but the question is how we compete. Commercial relationships depend on whether commitments are honored, risks are disclosed, disagreements are handled fairly and each party can rely on the other's conduct. This is why trust is an economic asset. The objective is not to choose between trust and control, but to build systems in which trust is earned and protected.

As we consider the future of the Asia-Pacific region, I suggest three commitments:

First, be open in our thinking and constructive in our engagement. Second, make trust, integrity and responsible innovation central to how we do business. Third, measure success by the opportunities we create for others.

Lim Guan Chye is the director of Commercial Banking Training, Asian Banking School, Malaysia.

Region needs to heed new logic in tech cooperation

Northeast Asia is rich in innovation resources, sustained industrial connections, and cross-border public demand for tech cooperation. However, increasing industrial competition, differing technology applications and regulatory disparities elevate cooperation costs and uncertainty. While the foundation for cooperation is strong, existing mechanisms lack sufficient institutionalization, necessitating further transformation and deepening of collaborative efforts.

In Northeast Asia, innovation resources are concentrated in a few key areas, forming the "supply-side" foundation of regional science and technology cooperation. Additionally, ongoing cross-border production linkages coexist with intensifying industrial competition within the same regional network. This dynamic creates a foundation of "competitive interdependence" for Northeast Asian sci-tech cooperation, where connections persist even as competition within the network escalates.

What was once a relatively clear division of labor has evolved into a landscape of overlapping roles and high-value-added competition, with value-chain positions intersecting and technological capabilities converging.

Conversely, cross-border public issues such as air pollution control, marine protected area development, green transitions, and desertification and land degradation management generate ongoing demand for regional science and technology cooperation. While the benefits of these efforts spread across borders, the costs are borne by specific actors, which makes cost-sharing, information provision and the maintenance of public goods persistently challenging.

In this context, the logic of regional cooperation must evolve to acknowledge the interplay between competition and dependence, refining the boundaries of cooperation in areas such as technology, data, and application. Cooperation should occur at multiple levels, including regional frameworks and specific projects, with performance evaluated based on sustainability, the reusability of knowledge and the applicability of R&D outcomes to production and governance. Additionally, project-level risk identification and access rules are essential. The collaborative pathway includes turning shared needs into tasked projects, with multiple actors working together around these tasks, outcomes feeding into cross-border applications and translating China's capabilities into conditions for cooperation.

Deepening cooperation increasingly hinges on establishing clear, stable and actionable arrangements around specific technologies, participating actors, and the application of outcomes. Success is not measured by the number of activities, but by sustained input, the reuse of knowledge and the cross-border application of results.

Li Dongxin is a professor at the School of Northeast Asian Studies, Shandong University.

Keep Asia open and let technology serve people

Asia's future prosperity hinges on remaining open to trade and ideas, enhancing regional cooperation, using technology responsibly and ensuring that the benefits of growth are shared by all. While economies differ in resources, technologies, skills and development levels, these differences create complementarity, not just competition. Countries can specialize in areas where they are competitive and learn from each other. Stronger regional value chains help connect these strengths, and when combined with cooperation, they lead to shared opportunities.

APEC and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership are complementary platforms that serve different purposes while reinforcing regional dialogue and economic integration. Regional integration is most beneficial when businesses, farmers, and workers capture a larger share of the value created.

Once adopted, AI can serve as a powerful toolkit capable of transforming industry chains. For instance, it can enhance quality control and predictive maintenance in manufacturing, improve demand forecasting, inventory management and route planning in logistics, and refine weather, soil, pest, and crop analysis in agriculture. Additionally, AI can boost customer analysis, marketing and multilingual services for SMEs. Furthermore, it promotes better coordination between suppliers and buyers, structurally optimizing supply chains.

However, technology should serve people, not replace human potential. If the goal is open cooperation and shared prosperity, the Asia-Pacific region must ensure that AI cooperation is inclusive, responsible and beneficial for all. This means investing in people through skill development, digital literacy and lifelong learning; supporting access for SMEs and developing economies; ensuring trust through privacy, cybersecurity and ethical governance; building capabilities through research, local talent and knowledge transfer; and enabling interoperability through practical standards and compatible systems.

The goal should be shared innovation without harmful concentration.

Phou Sambath is a professor at the International Business Management Department, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.