LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 SERIES APAC: The GSMA established the APAC 5G Industry Community, designed as an ecosystem to support industry innovation and business opportunities across next-generation networks, edge-cloud services and enterprise IoT.

The APAC 5G Industry Community comprises 12 contributing members across the mobile value chain as well as the existing IoT and 5G emerging market community, which has some 500 members in more than 30 countries.

GSMA head of Asia Pacific Julian Gorman explained in a statement the group aims to “unlock the power of 5G connectivity so people, industries and society thrive”, noting the industry association is committed to playing “a leading role in supporting and amplifying the vital work our industry is doing at this time”.

The contributing members are: Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency; Malaysia Digital Economy Corp; Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo); AIS; Axiata Group; Globe Telecom; Maxis; Telkomsel; Viettel; DHL; Huawei; and Schneider Electric.

Gorman noted 2021 showed how critical digital transformation can be, as it enabled people and businesses to combat the continued impacts of Covid-19 (corornavirus).

“As digitalisation has accelerated, it has become clear that digital inclusion is of the utmost importance. Collaborative approaches will be key as more 5G networks are launched in the region as they unlock new and innovative technologies.”

Initially, the Community set up three industry interest groups covering manufacturing and logistics, ports and transportation, and healthcare to support members.

A new report from GSMA Intelligence released at the event shows how collaboration can help countries in Asia Pacific continue to progress towards fully-fledged digital societies.

The Digital Societies Report in Asia Pacific: Accelerating progress through collaboration tracked the progress of Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.