Background Information:

In May 2018, ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology (COST) Retreat and the 74th Meeting of the ASEAN COST (COST-74) welcomed and supported a proposal on “The ASEAN High Performance Computing (HPC) Facilities” that jointly developed by Singapore and Thailand. The participants noted that while there was existing technological infrastructure for connectivity, there was a need to form a task force to look into the technical feasibility to enhance the connectivity necessary to access the high-performance computer’s capacity, and the participants noted that Singapore and Thailand shall organize preparatory work, forming a task force and workshop. In Oct 2018, the 75th Meeting of the ASEAN COST (COST-75) in Cebu, Philippines endorsed the recommendation on next steps of Shared ASEAN HPC Infrastructure initiative to collaborate with E.U. using E-READI mechanism, and the Tenth Informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology (IAMMST-10), underscoring the importance to leverage on the paradigm shifting science and technologies in a sustainable and inclusive manner, the Ministers were pleased to note the establishment of the ASEAN High Performance Computing (HPC) Infrastructure initiative.

The ASEAN HPC Taskforce was formed in 2019 by 10 ASEAN Member States (AMS): Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. This taskforce is currently led by Co-Chairs from Singapore and Thailand.

ASEAN HPC Taskforce objectives are to create opportunities for growth of technological capabilities in ASEAN, by providing access to top-tier HPC resources and expertise (common platform for research and data sharing), to deepen ASEAN digital connectivity, and enhance ASEAN’s digital capabilities, both for the pursuit of science and for public-private partnership/ industry collaboration.

One of the goals is to expand the community of collaboration between ASEAN HPC and the global HPC community. The taskforce organises ASEAN HPC activities such as Fugaku trial applications and EU-ASEAN HPC School, so that other ASEAN countries can access shared HPC resources with one another such as the Fugaku supercomputer. Lastly, the taskforce is conducting discussions for effective outreach.