New technologies drive a vibrant Asia-Pacific

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.