Regional Cooperation Driving a Resilient Digital Future in Asia

The 2025 Joint Program: NDE Forum and Capacity Building on Digitalization and Finance in Asia was co-hosted by the UN Climate Technology Centre and Network, the National Institute of Green Technology, and the World Bank, supported by the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT.

The gathering brought together senior representatives from more than 20 countries across Asia and the Pacific, along with Korean government officials, private sector leaders, and regional experts, to strengthen regional cooperation and accelerate the integration of digitalization and AI into resilience projects. Korea’s advanced digital ecosystem and track record as an innovation hub made it a natural convening ground for this exchange, offering lessons and technologies that other countries can adapt to their own contexts.

The World Bank team led the capacity-building program, presenting practical resources to help countries plan and finance sustainable digital projects. These included the Shared Data Diagnostic Tool, the Bank’s guidelines for resilient telecommunications and data infrastructure, and financing instruments designed to unlock investment in AI-enabled climate solutions.

Leveraging the Korea Digital Development program (KoDi) partners' network and the Korean private sector—including the National Information Society Agency, NAVER Data Labs, a data platform for detailed keyword trend analysis, and BC Card, Korea's largest payment processing company—the workshop showcased scalable solutions that can be deployed regionally to support resilience and green growth. This helped participants identify four priority areas for future technical assistance and investment: resilient digital infrastructure, green data centers, data sharing and analytics, and AI-ready solutions for climate action.

In the coming months, participating countries will put forward ideas for how digital tools and AI can best support their sustainability goals. By working together to champion the most impactful of these proposals, the World Bank and CTCN aim to turn innovation into action, helping communities across Asia build stronger, more resilient futures.