Cross-border Cooperation Crucial To Combat Scams, Protect ASEAN’s Digital Ecosystem - Thai Minister

By Soon Li Wei

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 (Bernama) -- ASEAN requires stronger cross-border cooperation and intelligence sharing among governments, telecommunications operators, financial institutions and tech platforms to combat digital scams and reinforce public trust across the region’s expanding digital ecosystem, said Thailand's Minister of Digital Economy and Society Chaichanok Chidchob.

He said digital threats and transnational crimes do not operate within institutional or national boundaries, making cooperation between the public and private sectors increasingly important.

He noted that one of the biggest hurdles governments encountered when deploying digital services was not whether citizens understood the technology, but whether they would be protected when something went wrong.

“In Thailand, questions frequently raised by users include who is on the other side (owners) of a digital service, whether the service is safe and secure, and what protection is available to them.

"When people don't participate, it becomes obsolete," he said during a panel discussion titled ‘From Protection to Participation - Building Trusted and Resilient Digital Ecosystems in ASEAN ’, moderated by GSMA head of Asia Pacific, Julian Gorman, held in conjunction with M360 ASEAN 2026 here today. 

Chaichanok said Thailand’s approach was centred on two broad areas, namely prevention and protection, which included embedding security into digital architecture from the outset and fostering cooperation among government agencies, regulators and private-sector players.

He noted that such collaboration was critical in tackling technology-related crimes, which could involve telecommunications networks, financial institutions and digital platforms simultaneously.

To address governance in the artificial intelligence (AI) era, he said Thailand had recently established the AI Governance Practice Centre (AIGPC), a national and regional hub designed to translate ethical AI principles into actionable frameworks.

Envisaging an integrated ASEAN by 2030, Chaichanok projected that digital systems would become increasingly interoperable across national borders.

“(We could see) a Thai national digital ID being able to identify myself here in KL and use services of the government or the private sector here... seamlessly and feeling secure,” he said. 

Echoing the call for closer collaboration, Google senior director of government affairs and public policy for Southeast Asia, South Asia Frontier and Taiwan, David Weller, warned that the interconnectedness powering the digital revolution has also introduced systemic vulnerabilities.

However, he said AI could serve as an essential prevention tool because it could identify signals and predict potentially risky situations before harm occurred.

“Organisations across government and industry are already detecting fraud and scams using signals available within their respective ecosystems, but keeping that information within institutional silos limits the collective ability to identify threats.

“Greater real-time information exchange would allow organisations to learn from one another and harness AI more effectively to secure digital systems,” he said. 

Mastercard executive vice-president Matthew Driver said scams present a different challenge from conventional network or service disruptions because scams are fundamentally based on deception.

He pointed out that while users might tolerate temporary service interruptions when providers clearly communicated the situation, scams directly undermined confidence in the digital ecosystem.

“To address the problem, it requires a shared accountability or responsibility framework involving multiple players… It is important to ensure that regulatory frameworks permit legitimate information sharing between industries.

“Even when telecommunications operators or other companies possess information that could help prevent fraud, existing licensing or regulatory requirements may restrict their ability to share it,” he said. 

He added that legitimate-use provisions should be incorporated into legislative frameworks to facilitate anti-fraud collaboration with proper safeguards, especially as autonomous AI agents emerged.

“While the digital economy already applies concepts such as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB), the prospect of KYA (Know Your Agent) is becoming increasingly relevant as autonomous AI agents become more widely deployed.

Meanwhile, Circles Group co-founder and chief executive officer Rameez Ansar said telecommunications operators also have an important role in strengthening digital trust as they maintain continuous relationships with their customers.

“Telcos could potentially position themselves as a first point of contact for customers who fall victim to scams, given their existing relationship and communication channels with users,” he said. 

Looking towards 2030, Ansar identified three essential layers of information sharing: within the telecom industry, across domestic sectors such as banking, and across international borders to tackle threats originating from overseas.

“Such cooperation would allow different parts of the digital ecosystem to combine information that may otherwise remain fragmented among telecommunications networks, applications, financial institutions and other digital platforms,” he said. 

M360 ASEAN 2026, organised by the GSMA on Sept 9 and 10, brings together ministers, regulators and industry leaders to discuss digital trust, artificial intelligence, resilient infrastructure and regional digital integration. 

The event, held for the first time in Malaysia and the ASEAN region, is endorsed by the Communications Ministry, with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as host partner.

-- BERNAMA