Agenda

DAY 1 (CLOSED-DOOR)

Speakers and participants arrive

Alan R. Turley
Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs,
U.S. Embassy in Tokyo

Mark Bryan Manantan
Director of Cybersecurity and Critical Technologies,
Pacific Forum

This session will provide an overview of CONVERGE, stating the project’s main goal of building a collaborative regional environment that supports a dynamic tech ecosystem. It will outline the forum’s key questions:

  • What are the short- and long-term opportunities and challenges among the US, Japan, Australia, India, Singapore and the Philippines on artificial intelligence 

(AI) and semiconductors?

  • How can the Indo-Pacific region make its approach interoperable to adopting standards and frameworks on technology governance, economic security, data flows, research and development, and capacity-building to enhance international tech collaboration?
  • How can policymakers, professionals, and experts ease regulatory frictions and raise capacity to achieve international partnerships and collaboration?

 To ground the forum’s discussions, this session will provide a common definition of AI and semiconductors, and how such technologies relate to one another. It will also outline the thematic structure of the forum based on the five dimensions that are vital to achieving policy interoperability to facilitate collaboration: (i) Economic security, (ii) Cybersecurity standards and supply chain resilience, (iii) AI and Data governance, (iv) Capacity-building and (v) International partnerships and collaboration. 

To kick off the forum, key experts from the US, Japan, Australia, India, and Southeast Asia will share their perspectives on the current state of tech disruption and innovation from their respective countries with a narrow focus on AI and/or semiconductors.

CHAIR:
Brad Glosserman
Senior Advisor, Pacific Forum

PANELISTS:
Martijn Rasser
Chief Strategy Officer, Datenna

Danielle Cave
Director – Executive, Strategy & Research
Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Masaru Tsuchiya, Ph.D.
Partner, McKinsey & Company

Col. Anurag Awasthi
Vice President of India Electronics and Semiconductors Association

Maria Monica Wihardja, Ph.D.
Visiting fellow
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

With the increasing move towards de-risking, speakers in this session will focus on evolving technology control regimes concerning export control and foreign direct investment screening to AI and semiconductors. It will assess how each country is adapting to the ongoing bifurcation of supply-chains, proliferation of industrial tech policies, and securitization of trade, talent and investments. It will also focus on the opportunities for bolstering resilience and cooperation.

CHAIR:
Akira Igata
Project Lecturer, RCAST University of Tokyo

PANELISTS:
Erik Pederson
Director of Government Relations, Samsung Semiconductor

Susumu Shuto, Ph.D.
Expert, Strategic Planning Division, Toshiba

Mary Lyn Serdoncillo
Global Logistics Trade Compliance and Control Tower – IBM Philippines

Konark Bhandari
Fellow, Carnegie India

George Tan
President, Centre for Asia Pacific Trade Compliance and Information Security

Keynote Address: Indo-Pacific Critical Tech – Perspective from Europe

Mr. Michiel Sweers
Vice Minister, Foreign Economic Relations
Kingdom of the Netherlands

This session will focus on the digital and physical security threats confronting AI and semiconductors. Speakers will examine the rising concerns about cyber-enabled intellectual property (IP) theft through cyber operations and/or insider threats. It will also canvass the existing frameworks in place on international technical standards and risk-management frameworks against cyberattacks, adversarial AI, and supply chain compromise.

CHAIR:
Mark Manantan
Pacific Forum

PANELISTS:
Ben Scott
Senior Advisor, National Security College
Australian National University

Daisuke Kawai
Project Assistant Professor, RCAST

Manoj Harjani
Research Fellow, RSIS Singapore

Amy Chang
AI security researcher, Robust Intelligence

Mina Takazawa
Government Affairs Director, Corporate, External and Legal Affairs
Microsoft

Tsutomu Shimizu
Sr. Manager
Trend Micro Incorporated

This session will focus on the digital and physical security threats confronting AI and semiconductors. Speakers will examine the rising concerns about cyber-enabled intellectual property (IP) theft through cyber operations and/or insider threats. It will also canvass the existing frameworks in place on international technical standards and risk-management frameworks against cyberattacks, adversarial AI, and supply chain compromise.

CHAIR:
Mark Manantan
Pacific Forum

PANELISTS:
Ben Scott
Senior Advisor, National Security College
Australian National University

Daisuke Kawai
Project Assistant Professor, RCAST

Manoj Harjani
Research Fellow, RSIS Singapore

Amy Chang
AI security researcher, Robust Intelligence

Mina Takazawa
Government Affairs Director, Corporate, External and Legal Affairs
Microsoft

While most countries adhere to a human-centric approach to governing AI-enabled technologies, variances still exist given the different socio-cultural contexts, digital maturity, and innovation capability of each country. Also, some countries are encouraging data localization and promoting digital sovereignty that may restrict or limit cross-border data flow. Speakers in this session will also explore various mechanisms, and best practices on how the public and the private sector can enhance data privacy and security while still permitting the exchange and flow of data.

CHAIR:
Merve Hickok
President and CEO, Center for AI and Digital Policy

PANELISTS:
Hiroki Habuka
Research Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Law

Sandy Kunvatanagarn
Head, Asia Pacific
Open AI

Ralph Regalado
Founder and CEO, Senti AI

Isha Suri
Research lead, Center for Internet and Society

DAY 2

This session will recap the key findings from Day 1, emphasizing the opportunities and challenges that the USA, Japan, Australia, India, and Southeast Asia may face toward harmonization of standards and frameworks on economic security, cybersecurity, and governance of emerging technologies.

Ryo Funakoshi
Director For Information Policy Planning,
Commerce and Information Policy Bureau

The lack of skilled labor is a common challenge among all countries on their tech innovation journey. In this session, speakers will probe various means and strategies to facilitate the smooth exchange of professionals and experts from each country. It will also discuss the role of the private sector in collaborating with the industry and academia in providing upskilling and reskilling opportunities to fill in the widening talent deficit. 

CHAIR: 

Kristi Govella, Ph.D.
Adjunct fellow, Pacific Forum 
Associate Professor, University of Oxford

PANELISTS:

Ryo Funakoshi
Director For Information Policy Planning
Commerce and Information Policy Bureau

Chaitanya Giri, Ph.D. 
Fellow, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology 
Observer Research Foundation-India

Aiko Shimizu 
Director of AI National Skills, Corporate, External and Legal Affairs (CELA)
Microsoft

Louis Alarcon, Ph.D. 
Professor, Electrical and Electronics Institute
University of the Philippines

Jeff Penrose 
Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer,
EarlyBirds

Discussion of the Critical Technologies Policy (CTP) Playbook Country Brief

As a working lunch, participants will be divided into their respective countries to discuss the CTP Playbook and the survey based on the five dimensions: (i) Economic security, (ii) Cybersecurity and supply chain resilience, (iii) AI and data governance, (iv) Capacity-building and (v) International partnerships.

ENEOS Hall, Building #3-S, Komaba II Campus

Building on the forum’s overall findings and analysis, this final wrap-up session will discuss the path forward to improve policy alignment among the US, Japan, Australia, India, Singapore, and the Philippines to achieve tangible collaboration in research and development, boost foreign direct investments, and capacity-building on AI and semiconductors to cultivate a tech-ready Indo-Pacific.

CHAIR:
Akira Igata
Project Lecturer, RCAST University of Tokyo

PANELISTS:
Merve Hickok
President and CEO, Center for AI and Digital Policy

Col. Anurag Awasthi
Vice President of India Electronics and Semiconductors Association

Francis Quimba, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow, Philippine Institute of Development Studies

Maria Monica Wihardja, Ph.D.
Visiting fellow
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Susan Travis
Head of Research
Tech Council Australia

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CONVERGE: Indo-Pacific Critical Tech Forum 2024

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