Experts from the region convened on Wednesday at the 2021 Digital Talent Summit webinar, cohosted by the ASEAN Foundation and Huawei, to explore ways to step up developing digital talents as a huge shortage of skilled personnel continues.

International consultant Korn Ferry estimated a shortage of 47 million tech talents by 2030 in the Asia Pacific region. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found in a survey that more than 50 percent of Asia Pacific CEOs say it is difficult to hire digital talent with the right skills.

The challenges have also entered a new phase as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the digital talent landscape in the Asia Pacific like never before, according to Huawei’s 2022 Digital Talent Insight.

The world is in the midst of disruptions with emerging technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT) and blockchain poised to dramatically reshape the digital economy.

“We have gone beyond skill development [that can be learned] to seek ‘transformation leadership’ […] It’s all about the mindset […] of talents who think of customers first […] and who can take to the challenge the status quo,” Gokhan Ogut, CEO of Malaysia’s telecom firm Maxis, said at the webinar.

Vu Minh Khuong from Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy said apart from the ability to “make a breakthrough”, new digital talents also needed to have the skills to foster synergy and even to transform the world with innovations.

He coined a framework for step-up talents called Smart Model, with the S standing for strategy role, M for momentum building, A for the acquisition of knowledge, R for rethink and T for trust-building.

Huawei’s Digital Talent Insight concurred that governments needed to lead the way and work closely with industries (demand) and academia (supply) in terms of planning and development of their local talent population

The study grouped countries into three digital talent development categories: Frontrunner (Singapore, South Korea, Japan), Adopter (China, Malaysia, Thailand) and Starter (Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh).

It found that the Adopter countries show a government’s initiatives and investment in digital development can differentiate the pace at which a country achieves its digitalization initiatives. However, the efforts are still insufficient as talent policies can aid younger generations but not mid-career converters, for example.

Mohamed Djelid from UNESCO Asia Pacific echoed a parallel view from a recent World Economic Forum-Sea Co. survey of 80,000 people showing small and medium enterprises (SME) are more enthusiastic about the tech change and keen to advance the challenge than other groups.

“It’s the state of mind,” he added.

Syed Ismail Shah of International Telecommunication Union Southeast Asia said that for anxious workers, the reskilling of senior people is more about “mindset”. He called for more collaboration among ASEAN countries and seriousness in developing digital ecosystems so that the tools can be made widely available.

Maxis’ Ogut said that while partnerships with academia are essential, his firm also used the merger and acquisition process to acquire talents from specialist small and medium-sized start-ups and digital service providers.

Huawei is rolling out its new talent development program in four more countries to bring the total to eight in the Asia Pacific region, said Jay Chen, Huawei Asia Pacific’s vice president.

Huawei also signed on Wednesday the Seeds for the Future cooperation with the ASEAN Foundation.

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Digital talent development maturity score: Asia Pacific

Singapore

 •  More than 40 policies, initiatives and public-private partnership (PPP) schemes, driven by various agencies under Education Ministry, Communications and Information Ministry, Trade and Industry Ministry and more

 • Invests 8 percent of government expenditure in digital talent related initiatives – involves grants, subsidies and cash payouts for citizens of various age groups, career phases and communities

South Korea

• Invests more than US$3 billion to support artificial intelligence (AI) education in country – directly aimed at supporting private enterprises in industry such as semiconductor makers to upskill and be future-proof

Japan

 • Digital education is hardware or non-software engineering focused because of culture. They have bold plan to more than triple the bench of digital talent, focusing disproportionately on software developers, data engineers, data scientists, machine learning engineers, product managers, agile coaches, designers and other types of new jobs

• However, limited actions seen in realizing the above. They have not shifted education nor have flagship PPP been announced for this plan

China

• China takes top-down approach in digital talent development. PPP scheme in country seems limited to only homegrown private enterprises and limited collaboration with foreign enterprises. For instance, Alibaba runs the Global Digital Talent Program

• Furthermore, limited investment made to help build digital talent in marginalized areas of the country. Most is concentrated in first and second tier cities. This report estimates China spends 2 to 3 percent annual government expenditure on digital talent development

Malaysia

• Malaysia ministries and government agencies rarely collaborate, despite driving similar initiatives. For instance, MDEC, MIDA and MyDigital all run different programs and initiatives that rarely overlap

•Fairly new initiative Malaysia Work in Tech (MWIT) aims to invest RM100 million (US$24.14 million) to develop digital talents, much less than neighboring countries, which are spending above $200 million

Thailand

• Thailand’s digital policy heavily focused on infrastructure building rather than talent.

• This year the government reported to likely spend US$10 million to $13 million in digital talent building, very much lower than neighboring countries.

Vietnam

• Vietnam recently introduced new digitalization strategy, as mentioned above. None of the goals in the strategy took into consideration digital talent building.

• Language barrier key reason preventing the country from becoming a top-notch digital talent hub, yet no serious initiative available to mitigate this issue. Thus, with no initiative, limited investments made in digital talent building by the government.

• However, because of cultural preference for software engineering, Vietnam digital talent cultivation is promising.

Indonesia

 • Ever since appointment of Gojek’s founder as education, culture, research and technology minister, Indonesia has relied on that ministry to drive all digital initiatives, talent included. Thus, limited collaboration between other ministry and agencies under them reported.

• There were a lot of mentions of government focus on digital talent building in 2019, but such announcements and news faltered in 2020 and 2021.

• However, PPP scheme was established with Tokopedia to introduce a large-scale digital talent program to upskill citizens. In addition, Alibaba Cloud commits to invest US$1 billion to support digital talent pool.

• Government focuses on tax deductions for enterprises who support digital talent building but actual fiscal investment rarely mentioned

India

 • NASSCOM – a not-for-profit organization in India has partnered with the government and IT industry offering free or subsidized programs, “National Skills Prime”, encompassing 10 emerging technologies, including certifications

• Credit to global enterprises and NGOs, digital talent supply in India is high and will remain high if landscape remains unchanged

Pakistan

 • National Level Training Program (DigiSkills.pk) launched by Information Technology and Telecommunication Ministry through Ignite National Technology Fund provides free of cost training in freelancing and other marketable skills to youth. The program comprises of 10 courses including Freelancing, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Graphic Design, Digital Literacy, e-Commerce Management, Creative Writing, QuickBooks, AutoCAD and WordPress. Unknown collaboration between other agencies and ministries

• Punjab Skills Development Fund to join the Reskilling Revolution and partner with the World Economic Forum on a Closing the Skills Gap Country Accelerator in Pakistan, named Parwaaz.

Philippines

•Launched a Digital Job Program in October led by Information and Communications Technology Department (DICT) and the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA). 

• Limited mention of PPP scheme to develop digital talent in the country.

• In August, a Philippine tech company invested PHP80 million (US$1.58 million) in grants to academic partners to fund programs focusing on emerging technologies, sustainability and inclusion and diversity. There was no mention of government collaboration in this initiative.

Bangladesh

• Government famously launched the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ initiative a few years back in bid to draw investment for digital infrastructure and to an extent digital talent. Introduced policies and incentives such as 50 percent income tax relief for foreign talent importation and 100 percent profit repatriation.

• However, that initiative left dormant since 2019 without any replacement or active efforts. Government solely dependent on international enterprises to invest in digital talent building

Source: Huawei: 2022 Asia Pacific Digital Talent Insights

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