ASEAN+3 needs deeper AI, energy, payment integration to reduce dollar dependence, says regional research institute

　　SINGAPORE, July 31 (Xinhua) -- ASEAN+3 economies, namely ASEAN member states plus China, Japan and South Korea, should accelerate efforts to integrate artificial intelligence (AI), energy infrastructure and digital payment systems to avoid becoming more dependent on the U.S. dollar as AI reshapes global commerce, the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) said on Thursday.

　　According to a commentary by AMRO economists, commercial decisions by AI companies, cloud providers and payment networks are already creating a new monetary ecosystem centered on the U.S. currency.

　　"While the ASEAN+3 cannot prevent the self-reinforcing dollar loop from forming, they can limit their dependence on it," AMRO said.

　　The commentary said regional economies should pursue a coordinated strategy combining energy, AI and payments to strengthen digital competitiveness while reducing reliance on dollar-based financial infrastructure.

　　It recommended expanding regional data center capacity powered by affordable and increasingly cleaner energy sources to improve local access to computing power, while developing local-currency tokenized payment systems capable of supporting agentic commerce.

　　Such measures would help businesses participate in the digital economy without becoming increasingly reliant on dollar-denominated payment networks, while allowing regulators to retain oversight of financial transactions, AMRO said. ■