Early this year, I took up the charter of Cloud Evangelism for my employer. And in this role, I have been spending a lot of time traveling around the South East Asian region aka. ASEAN, talking to 100's of customers across both Enterprises and start-ups. I have met with them on the usual opportunity-related conversations, as well as on coffee-table chats and meet-ups that have spawned very interesting pathways for both sides. I would like share some insights from these interactions - and welcome you, the reader, to add to this.
1. Demographic Dividend:
A number of ASEAN countries are projected to have a large working-age population and comparatively small population of dependent youth and elderly over the next two or three decades, and this will provide several countries with the opportunity for remarkable GDP growth in the next 20 to 30 years.
Indonesia exemplifies an ASEAN country that has already capitalized upon its demographic transition through rigorous institutional development and a shift to an export-oriented manufacturing sector. Reforming its economy in the 1970s – preempting its population dividend – Indonesia has experienced between 6 and 8 percent GDP growth almost every year since enacting its market reforms.
Along with Indonesia, three other ASEAN countries – Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines – are expected to experience double-digit labor force growth through 2020 and beyond.
(See more at: http://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/2013/11/25/asean-demographic-dividend.html#sthsh.HAqs1cOm.dpuf)
2. Ready for Innovation:
The larger Asia Pacific region is the most lucrative mobile app development market globally, with 41% of the total revenue in 2013. By 2015, the region will be home to the largest number of developers accounting for 35% of the total developer base globally.
ASEAN accounts for about 17% of developers in AP - a huge base. And more importantly, growing at a rapid clip.
Thailand has the largest number of developers in ASEAN. Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia are other large developer bases. And they are all growing fast.
Large young developer populations based in countries that are witnessing technology leap-frogging makes for a sure recipe for large-scale innovations waiting to happen
3. Unlocking Innovation
A large population of hungry-developers with dreams in their eyes and a drive to succeed. What stops them? Lack of the right set of tools. Capital funding is generally not such a big issue, with several incubators and local start communities available to mentor and fund them. If we can arm these developers with the right set of tools and skills, we will be unlocking large-scale innovation.
In my conversations with a few incubators and start-ups, Cloud is increasingly seen as the answer. It is interesting to note, developers in Asia are more open to use Cloud as a development platform compared to those elsewhere. No wonder am seeing so much of interest in PaaS / DevOps offerings across the region.
