This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 12, 2025 - May 18, 2025

In his landmark work, The Origin of Wealth, Oxford Professor Eric Beinhocker explains the global economy as the combination of physical technology, social technology and business models. This understanding of wealth creation provides key concepts for considering crucial choices to navigate a turbulent future. Selecting a New Development Model (NDM) in an era of global shocks is a strategic decision to achieve ecological, social and financially sustainable pathways by upgrading social and technological infrastructure, as well as human talent and well-being. Societies are both people- and planet-based. Sustainability means that good business must reinforce efficiency and resilience.

Our Asian experience shows that society is developed through good infrastructure and talent development. The new challenge ahead is how to do this using emerging technologies.

We often think of infrastructure as physical roads, bridges and telecommunications utilities, whereas social infrastructure comprises investing in education, technology and skills upgrading. We can thus think of digital infrastructure as the “roads and bridges” of the digital age: they connect people to essential services and democratise knowledge towards skills and values that help generate more equal and balanced societies. Such infrastructure, like physical infrastructure, requires good governance in setting foundational values, such as what is seen in Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness concept.

Digital Public Infrastructures (DPI) form the backbone of modern digital ecosystems, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), because they enable inclusive growth, innovation and sustainable development. These infrastructures help create fairer growth, spark new ideas and support long-term progress. Think of them as shared tools — like public digital services (for example, secure ID systems or payment platforms) and community-managed resources (for example, free software or open data). These tools are affordable and easy to access, allowing governments, businesses and citizens to work more efficiently, adapt to challenges and improve lives.

For these shared resources to work long term, they must do three things: avoid waste, stay reliable even in tough times, and prioritise the health of people and the planet.

DPIs are ecosystems that function in two layers:

•     Physical layer: internet connections, data centres, cloud services and devices such as smartphones; and

•     Digital layer: platforms, standards and systems that let technologies “talk” to each other.

The glue holding these two layers together are people — skilled individuals who run, manage and improve these systems through a step-by-step process called the “Data Infrastructure Maturity Ladder”. This ladder helps countries gradually build stronger digital foundations.

Key parts of DPIs include internet hubs (such as local traffic centres for data), content networks and cloud services. For these systems to work fairly, they must be open to all, ensuring everyone has equal access to knowledge and resources, thus creating a truly public good. This openness lets governments, businesses and communities collaborate to build better digital services together.

Today, resilience demands that we build strong, adaptable digital systems. To do this, we need modular tools — including digital ID systems, instant payment networks and secure data-sharing platforms — that can seamlessly “plug into” each other.

Let’s break down two key terms:

•     Front end: This is the part of a website or app on a phone or PC that users see and interact with — buttons, menus or forms; and

•     Micro front end: A way of designing apps by splitting the front end into smaller, independent pieces. Each piece can be built and updated separately (for example, a “payment” section of a banking app), letting teams work faster without overloading developers.

For example, McKinsey highlights how banks use micro front ends to efficiently improve customer features. As they explain: “When implemented properly, micro front ends can help companies use existing resources more efficiently and effectively, doing more with what they already have.”

This strategy is ultimately about:

•     Bottom-up collaboration: Letting smaller groups build and improve parts of a system;

•     User-first design: Prioritising ease of use and privacy from the start; and

•     Scalable governance: Ensuring systems stay trustworthy as they grow.

Increasingly, we recognise that Digital Creative Commons (DCC) are the foundations of community-managed data and know-how resources governed by principles of openness and collective stewardship. The more a community builds such a DCC and uses it, the more valuable it becomes for everyone — the sum of the DCC is greater than its parts. Key elements include open-source software, open data sets and platforms like DHIS2, a health information system used widely in low-income countries. The democratic nature of DCCs means that its governance systems must prevent monopolisation or predatory action against users. For example, Decidim is a digital platform for citizen participation in public governance through open-source tools, while scikit-learn provides machine learning capabilities as a publicly accessible good. Mass voluntary collaboration, permissive licensing and user-friendly designs ensure that such DCCs remain democratic, adaptable, accessible, innovative and scalable.

Just as safe roads accelerate trade, DPI and DCC work together to accelerate digital transformation towards the NDM. DPI reduces duplication of efforts, lowers costs and accelerates service delivery. Governments can deploy sector-specific solutions — such as digital identity for social welfare programmes or data-sharing platforms for healthcare, education and public security. For instance, Estonia’s X-Road infrastructure enables secure data exchange across government databases, forming the basis for its renowned e-governance services.

DCCs foster innovation by allowing developers and organisations to rapidly build upon existing tools, especially new AI tools that accelerate writing of software, testing prototypes and bringing products quickly to market or users.

One critical DPI bottleneck is creating local internet hubs — called Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) — which keep a country’s online traffic flowing efficiently within its borders instead of relying on slower, costlier international routes. These hubs speed up the internet, reduce costs for users and businesses, and encourage local content such as apps or streaming services. For instance, Kenya’s KIXP hosts key internet servers, making it a regional hub for East Africa, while Ukraine’s network of IXPs has improved domestic data flow even during crises. Success hinges on collaboration between telecom firms, content creators and tech providers, supported by regulatory frameworks that prevent big companies from dominating the market. This ensures smaller players and communities can thrive in a competitive digital landscape.

EMDEs face significant challenges in establishing DPI, because many lack mature data ecosystems, stable IXPs, developed cloud infrastructure and supportive regulatory environments. State monopolies in DPIs are inefficient, whereas the initial investment in DPI often lacks funding. DHIS2, for instance, faces ongoing challenges in maintaining its health information platform despite its global adoption.

Thus, the key to success in building DPI is proper governance and policy frameworks. Clear regulations on data privacy, interoperability standards, and anti-­monopoly measures are essential to foster trust and participation.

Planning to build DPI could either adopt a “Big Push” model that is expensive, or begin with sector-specific road maps — for healthcare, agriculture or social protection, whose successes or failures can guide the scaling at the national level. Crucially, we must figure out how to tap into global know-how and funding, as well as drawing on domestic funding to share the risks of investing in DPI. In short, we do not need to reinvent the wheel — there is ample know-how in different markets that can be cheaply adapted for our own needs — the true localisation of global ideas and practice.

There are multiple international experiences on building DPI and DCC, but such efforts are not connected to each other, resulting in huge wastage by duplicating efforts and not learning key lessons. Initiatives such as the Digital Public Goods Registry promote the sharing of open-source solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals, while the World Bank and other multilateral organisations can provide technical assistance and financing. Estonia and Moldova offer blueprint lessons for digital governance. In other words, EMDEs can draw on global and local lessons to harness digital technologies to drive inclusive growth and resilience in an increasingly interconnected world.

In conclusion, DPI are more than technical systems — they are enablers of societal progress. To design, plan and implement DPI requires clear strategic thinking and pragmatic implementation. By committing to openness, collaboration and trust, a NDM that takes advantage of the digital revolution leaves no one behind.

Tan Sri Andrew Sheng and Ali Azmi are chairman and research associate respectively, of the George Town Institute of Open and Advanced Studies, Wawasan Open University, Penang

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