ASEAN+3 Needs to Deepen AI Integration to Reduce Dollar Dependency

Singapore (ANTARA) - The ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) stated on Thursday that the ASEAN+3 economies—comprising ASEAN member states plus China, Japan, and South Korea—must accelerate efforts to integrate artificial intelligence (AI), energy infrastructure, and digital payment systems to avoid increased dependence on the US dollar as AI transforms global trade. According to comments from AMRO economists, commercial decisions by AI companies, cloud service providers, and payment networks have created a new monetary ecosystem centred on the US currency. “While ASEAN+3 cannot prevent the formation of a self-sustaining dollar reinforcement loop, they can limit their dependence on it,” AMRO stated. The commentary noted that regional economies should pursue a coordinated strategy that combines energy, AI, and payments to strengthen digital competitiveness while simultaneously reducing reliance on US dollar-based financial infrastructure. AMRO suggested expanding regional data centre capacity, supported by affordable and increasingly clean energy sources, to enhance local access to computing power. Furthermore, it recommended developing local currency-based tokenised payment systems capable of supporting trade involving AI agents. Such measures would assist businesses in participating in the digital economy without becoming increasingly dependent on dollar-dominated payment networks, while allowing regulators to maintain oversight of financial transactions, according to AMRO.