According to the APO Productivity Databook 2021, in 2010–19 the service sector dominated GDP growth, and advances in ICT have led to increases in service-sector contributions to labor productivity growth in most Asian countries. While the COVID-19 pandemic has had adverse impacts on the service sector, it also accelerated the adoption of technology to transform business operations and remain competitive.

Cloud solution technologies have advanced at an exponential rate, offering immense potential for service-sector enterprises to boost productivity and profitability. SMEs can adopt cloud solution technologies as a service without upfront capital costs for building infrastructure, thus reducing cash outflows. Software solutions provide necessary tools for overall management of business processes, such as cloud storage for data to be easily accessible irrespective of geographic location, managing finance and accounting, optimizing organizational human resources assignments, and building customer relationships, communications, and marketing.

To capitalize on the benefits of cloud-based solutions in improving the productivity of service-sector enterprises, a workshop on Enhancing Service-sector Productivity with Cloud Solutions was organized by the China Productivity Center in collaboration with the APO Secretariat from 24 to 26 August. Three international resource persons from Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore delivered presentations on topics related to cloud solutions to 34 participants from 12 APO members. Participants also had the opportunity to virtually visit and interact with senior executives from two companies in the ROC on the successful utilization of cloud-based solutions to boost overall business operations and growth.