Enhancing social, economic, and financial resilience in the face of increasing disaster and climate risk will be one of the most enduring challenges for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) finance ministers in coming years.

Digital technologies are transforming our economies and creating opportunities to build resilience and improve efficient and effective delivery of outcomes across almost every policy area—including disaster risk management. Internet access, smartphones, connected devices, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and other innovations will likewise transform the way we measure and monitor disaster risk and impacts and provide more comprehensive, accurate, and timely risk analysis. These developments are also changing how insurance is being designed, underwritten, distributed, and settled. Indeed, they are offering huge opportunity to broaden access to this financial tool, distribute some of the financial burden of disaster and climate risk to insurance and capital markets, and assist vulnerable communities and small businesses.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic vividly illustrates the enormous hardships that can result from a crisis and underscores the need to prepare for them.

This report is a joint effort by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to analyze those trends and to provide policymakers and stakeholders in the APEC region and beyond with suggestions for meeting those challenges in the coming years. While much of the development and discussion of this report occurred before the pandemic, the current crisis clearly highlights the importance of embracing new technologies and the need for governments to undertake advance risk planning. COVID-19 has forced governments and businesses around the world to rethink stakeholder engagement and service delivery. Many have embraced new online distribution and communication processes—out of necessity at first, and now because of the efficiencies achieved. COVID-19 will likely accelerate the penetration of digital technologies and could foster innovation and, in turn, allow the adoption of digital and innovative applications to strengthen disaster resilience.

To capitalize on emerging technological opportunities, therefore, APEC members need a policy environment that rewards innovation and a regulatory environment that enhances it. Yet, creating one is no easy task. Technological development and reliance create a host of issues across many policy areas, from consumer protection and privacy to security and safety to financial sector supervision and oversight. It also creates new risks that—if poorly managed—could entrench biases and existing inequalities.

APEC members have much to gain from addressing these challenges together—sharing their expertise and developing an approach that allows those that wish to apply emerging technologies and innovations to benefit from the economies of scale of APEC-wide implementation. COVID-19 is also demonstrating that regional cooperation is critical to containing such a pandemic and crucial in securing a sustainable and resilient recovery.