Economic Value to Asia Pacific Economy and key barriers to digital inclusion in Asia Pacific and the region
Asia Pacific and the region is a very exciting place where we can easily observe an exceptional mobile subscriber penetration, alongside accelerated-migration to faster networks and more advanced services.
The Region hosts advanced and emerging markets that are building
digital cities; and these mobile-powered digital societies are becoming major
drivers of social and economic development.
Beyond key barriers to digital inclusion in Asia Pacific, such as
lack of locally relevant content, affordability and a lack of digital skills, according to a new GSMA study published
at GSMA Mobile World Congress Shanghai this week, mobile technologies and
services contributed to 5.4 per cent of Asia Pacific’s GDP last year,
equivalent to $1.3 trillion in economic value; this economic contribution is
set to increase to $1.7 trillion by 2020.
For those who are unfamiliar, more than half the world’s mobile subscribers
are based in Asia Pacific and the region will be the main engine of global
subscriber growth for the remainder of the decade.
The number of mobile subscribers in the Asia Pacific region reached 2.5 billion
at the end of last year and will grow to 3.1 billion by 2020.