NEC Corporation has been contracted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through NEC Corporation (Thailand) Ltd. (NEC Thailand) to conduct exercises with the ASEAN-Japan Cybersecurity Capacity Building Centre (AJCCBC) in order to develop cybersecurity human resources for ASEAN member countries. NEC, in collaboration with NEC Thailand and NEC Asia Pacific, will hold a variety of hands-on cybersecurity exercises with the AJCCBC, including recovery measures against cyberattack and incident response exercises for personnel from governments and critical infrastructure companies based in ASEAN member countries. These exercises will be held four times in Bangkok, Thailand, by December 2023.

Moreover, new exercises will also be provided for trainers, aiming for them to conduct local exercises independently in the future. In recent years, technologies and methods have been rapidly evolving, and damage caused by cyberattacks has been expanding on a global scale. However, there is a global shortage of cybersecurity personnel, making the development of human resources and capacity building an important issue.

Against this backdrop, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) opened the AJCCBC in September 2018 as part of the "Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund 2.0" (JAIF 2.0), a project to develop cybersecurity human resources in ASEAN countries. From 2023, which marks the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation, JICA will start cooperating with the ASEAN Secretariat to strengthen the operation of the Centre and further develop it upon request from the ASEAN Secretariat.