Amazon, Apple and Google pledge training for women in Indo-Pacific under Biden programme
- IPEF Upskilling Initiative will provide training for 7 million over a decade in Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
- The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity was set up promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, while advancing competitiveness in the region
Fourteen US companies including Amazon and Visa each pledged to provide at least 500,000 digital training and education opportunities for women and girls in the Indo-Pacific region as part of a Biden administration initiative.
The programme, undertaken within the broader 14-nation Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, is focused on Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The IPEF Upskilling Initiative, which will provide 7 million training opportunities in total over the next decade, was unveiled on Thursday by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai as they host a two-day meeting of the Asian nations in Los Angeles. The plan is designed to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, while advancing competitiveness in the region, they said.
Other companies involved in the initiative are American Tower, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Google, Edelman, HP, IBM, Microsoft, PayPal and Salesforce.
The initiative – undertaken with The Asia Foundation, a non-profit development organisation – is focused on the emerging economies and middle-income countries in IPEF, which also includes rich countries such as Japan, South Korean, Australia and Singapore.
