ABLI active during 2026 Singapore Data Festival

ABLI had a busy week during the inaugural Singapore Data Festival during July 20 to 24, 2026.

In the afternoon of July 20, ABLI joined hands with Asia Tech Alliance (ATA) in organizing a closed-door session titled Trusted Data Corridor in ASEAN – from Recommendation to Implementation where participants discussed further the Trusted Data Corridor (TDC) concept first proposed in the ASEAN Framework on Cross-border Cloud Computing project that was endorsed at the sixth ASEAN Digital Minister’s Meeting in January 2026. The session’s Guest of Honor Ir. Wan Murdani Wan Mohamad, Vice President, Digital Adoption of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), gave opening remarks. MDEC is the implementing agency of the endorsed Project. The opening remarks were followed by ABLI’s presentation on the TDC and the Project in general, covering the TDC’s use cases, differentiators, principles, etc. Thereafter, ABLI and other panelists Alex Toh (Magellan Law), Manvinder Bhullar (AWS) and Wan Murdani had a panel discussion moderated by Lih Shiun Goh (ATA) to explore both opportunities and challenges of translating the TDC from a concept into concrete moves on the ground. We are heartened by the strong turnout and active questions posed by attendees. The session was also an opportunity for ABLI to express its appreciation to many contributors and experts who have been supporting our TDC journey in the past two years.

All of ABLI’s publications under the endorsed Project can be downloaded from this link.

ABLI and its parent organization Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) were also co-organizers of the following events during the Singapore Data Festival –

AI for Compliance: How Organizations can Utilize AI to Strengthen Privacy and Data Governance on the morning of July 21 where moderator Eu Gene Tan (AsiaDPO) steered conversations with Wilfred Ng (Bird & Bird), David Low (Ministry of Digital Development and Information), Yeong Zee Kin (SAL), Ken Li Yu (AsiaDPO), Craig Anderson (DBS) and Royce Wee (Meta) not on the governance of AI but on how to leverage AI to perform compliance and governance.

Biometric Data, Wearables and Physical AI: Frontier Legal, Regulatory and Policy Issues in the afternoon of July 21 where panelists Yeong Zee Kin (SAL), William Malcolm (UK Information Commissioner’s Office), Steve Tan (Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP), and Stephy Kwan (Meta) combined perspectives from regulation, legal practice and industry to explore issues such as biometric data regulation, bystander privacy and the innate opportunities presented by the technology. The panel was moderated by Dominic Paulger (Future of Privacy Forum).

The Innovation Exchange on Good Digital Regulation in the afternoon of July 23 where Hiroki Habuka (Kyoto University), Kyoungsic Min (VeraSafe) and Royce Wee (Meta) had a fireside chat around the theme of Looking Ahead: Good Regulatory Practice for Automated Decision-Making and Agentic AI, moderated by Yeong Zee Kin (SAL).

Separately, leveraging the presence of regulators from the region at the Singapore Data Festival, ABLI, together with SAL, concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong (PCPD) 香港個人資料私隱專員公署 and the Hong Kong International Data Privacy Academy that PCPD recently established. The MoU brings the signatories together to work on areas of capacity building and thought leadership on personal data protection, AI governance, and the evolving legal and regulatory landscape across Greater China and Southeast Asia, with the goal of creating opportunities for regulators, practitioners, businesses, and academia to exchange perspectives, and develop practical resources and learning opportunities so that all sides can navigate the digital economy with greater confidence.

More of ABLI’s work in data and digital economy can be found here.