The latest technology has contributed to modernizing food and beverage business models and creating new opportunities and challenges. ICT-based agricultural production, processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, marketing, and customer data are analyzed to identify preferences, reduce operating costs, and maximize profits. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are used for taking orders, resolving issues, or making recommendations, […]
Modernized regulations are essential to balance interests, achieve societal goals, and drive economic growth. Rapid technological change is outpacing regulatory systems, creating challenges for governance, the workforce, and society. Traditionally manual and resource-heavy, regulatory compliance is becoming more complex due to rising data demands, real-time monitoring needs, and evolving rules. RegTech, leveraging AI, big data, […]
By streamlining operations, enabling data-driven decisions, and fostering innovation, digital tools directly enhance efficiency and output. According to the UNCTAD E-commerce and Digital Economy Programme: Year in Review 2023, digitalization plays a critical role in economic inclusion and competitiveness, particularly in developing countries. The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2024 highlights how smart transformation has become […]
The informal economy accounts for about 66% of total employment in the Asia-Pacific, involving approximately 1.3 billion workers (ILO, 2025). Despite its scale, it is often marked by low productivity, limited access to markets and finance, and exclusion from labor protection and formal policy support. Enhancing informal-sector productivity and reducing its share in the economy […]
The ExW is a work environment designed to scale productivity, innovation, and impact at an exponential rate, rather than through incremental or linear improvements. It leverages emerging technologies, agile structures, and a forward-looking mindset to enable individuals and teams to achieve outsized results with fewer resources (APO, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic significantly transformed work styles, […]
With the support of a special cash grant from the Government of Japan, the APO initiated a demonstration farm project in October 2022 on Improvement of Productivity in Greenhouse Vegetable Production. This project aims to showcase microclimate control systems used by Japanese greenhouses and help farmers in Vietnam utilize the systems. It is expected to […]