VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has underscored the need for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to stay alert for cyber attack during the 32nd ASEAN Summit held in Singapore from April 25 to 28.

To that end, ASEAN member states need to work more closely in digital technology and cyber security. he said while addressing a plenary session of the 32nd ASEAN Summit on Friday night.

"We know there has been abuse of personal data by Facebook users. In ASEAN, we need to ensure the framework of cooperation in cyber security which also contains the protection of personal data. Hence, cooperation in the cyber field is a must," he said.

The Indonesian leader went on to say that ASEAN has very large potentials in the e-commerce field.

He predicted Internet users in ASEAN member states will triple to 600 million in 2015.

"E-commerce shopping is projected at almost US$90 billion and total internet-based economy is estimated at US$200 billion," he said.

Hence, ASEAN member states need to establish closer cooperation in developing cyber security policy and capacity building initiative through the ASEAN Cyber Capacity Program, the AMCC, and the ASEAN-Japan Cyber security Capacity Building Center, among others.

In their joint statement, ASEAN leaders underscored the need for ASEAN member states to implement steps and efforts to develop self confidence and adopt general, voluntary, and non-binding norms from the public behavior in order to act responsibly in the cyber world.