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Digital trade

Hinrich Foundation Digital Trade Research Project


Published 04 February 2019

At the Hinrich Foundation, we consider open digital trade to be a growth opportunity for countries as well as an enabler of major productivity improvements for sectors beyond the digital sector. However, we identified that policymakers, businesses and other stakeholders needed more information to have a robust discussion about ways to harness the benefits and manage potential risks related to digital trade.

The digital economy and the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution hold enormous promise for countries’ future prosperity. As economies rely increasingly on digital goods and services, regulatory frameworks and trade policies must be updated to meet the needs of the digital economy.

Together with local business community groups, we commissioned AlphaBeta to size the value of the digital trade opportunity (both for exports and the domestic economy) and to assess risks for eight economies in the Asia-Pacific – Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam.

Our objectives for this research project included:

  • Sizing the value of the digital trade opportunity for exports and the domestic economy
  • Measuring the opportunity cost of having a closed digital policy
  • Identifying the risks of an open digital policy and ways to address them
  • Recommending key policy actions for helping economies harness the benefits and manage potential risks

Explore findings for each economy

Read an in-depth analysis for each economy by clicking the country names below.

Australia   Malaysia
China   Philippines
India   Vietnam
Indonesia   Japan

© The Hinrich Foundation. See our website Terms and conditions for our copyright and reprint policy. All statements of fact and the views, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author(s).


Additional resources

In the news

Coverage of our Digital Trade Research Project findings

Past events

Read about the launches of our country reports across the Asia-Pacific region

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