Already the world's fastest-growing Internet market, southeast Asia has taken a vital step towards ensuring the region's inclusive digitalisation. At a major UN conference held in Astana, Kazakhstan, last month, Asia-Pacific nations jointly committed to a "visionary blueprint for strengthened cooperation for digital inclusion and transformation."
In advancing efforts to tackle pronounced digital access and skills divides, Asia-Pacific governments will need to ramp up collaboration with leading private sector actors in the region who share this vision of open, inclusive connectivity devoted to improving people's lives. Over the past decade, Hong Kong-based global tech entrepreneur and governance activist Lu Heng has established himself as a key partner in this endeavour.
As founder and CEO of IP solutions provider LARUS Limited and the non-profit Larus Foundation, Lu Heng has complemented his extensive business experience with wide-ranging philanthropic and governance leadership, helping to fuel the next stage of the Pacific Rim's digital drive.
A Journey of Entrepreneurial Innovation
Lu Heng's first encounter with the Internet community came as an international business and economics student at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. During this formative period, Lu Heng's attendance at global Internet governance conferences and direct mentorship from the pioneers of the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) community planted the seeds of his entrepreneurial path and subsequent advocacy in the telecommunications sector.
In immersing himself in the RIRs' world of Internet Protocol (IP) management—involving the registration and allocation of IP addresses across the five regions of North America, Latin America, Africa, Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific—Lu Heng soon recognised that without a sustainable supply of IPv4 addresses, the digitalisation of emerging economic regions would face significant obstacles—a realisation which inspired the launch of his IP firm, LARUS Limited.
Since its creation in 2016, LARUS has grown into a world leader in IP solutions, carving out a market niche with Lu Heng's innovative IP leasing model that has facilitated the efficient management of increasingly scarce and expensive IPv4 addresses. Crucially, this leasing approach has made IPv4 addresses more affordable and accessible for SME tech firms and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Asia-Pacific and Africa—regions traditionally underserved by the RIR system.
To date, LARUS has leased 10 million addresses to clients in over 60 countries, providing a vital foundation for inclusive digital growth in developing countries brimming with entrepreneurial drive and innovation while helping to maintain the open, multi-stakeholder and bottom-up ICT governance.
A Leader in Democratic Telecoms Governance
Lu Heng's successful journey as a tech entrepreneur has positioned him to lead policymaking that ensures a fair expansion of connectivity in Asia-Pacific that serves the aspirations of people in the region's emerging economies. Guided by his vision of "One World, One Internet," Lu Heng's wide-ranging engagement in global Internet and telecommunications governance has included active participation in the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)—the region's RIR—and over three years of service on the Pacific Telecommunications Council's (PTC) Advisory Council.
During his tenure on the Advisory Council, Lu Heng has provided crucial guidance on PTC's range of outreach initiatives to expand digital connectivity across the region, which include the Emerging Scholar Program for supporting young people's entry into the ICT sector, as well as the PTC Projects initiative aimed at promoting telecoms access and usage to improve quality of life in Asia-Pacific.
Keen to build on his advocacy in the region, Lu Heng recently launched his candidacy for the PTC Board of Governors. As a PTC board member, Lu Heng says that he would "continue his fight for inclusive ICT access and decentralised governance, including by supporting the transition to IPv6, while championing the innovative use of IPv4 addresses to accelerate connectivity across the region."
In his address at the Capacity Europe 2024 telecoms conference—held in London on 16 October—Lu Heng outlined his vision for "unlocking the hidden value of IPv4," which would see the outdated RIR system lose its exclusive control of IPv4 addresses in favour of a decentralised global distribution and ownership of these resources by ISPs and telcos. Making this same case at International Telecoms Week (ITW) 2024, Lu Heng explained to industry leaders how innovative distributed ledger technologies, particularly blockchain, can help realise this vision, unlocking significant economic potential for the telecoms industry.
According to Lu Heng, this market innovation would not only unleash massive IP liquidity for telecoms firms and boost their market capitalisation but also empower PTC members with "more tools and resources for meaningful collaboration" while reinforcing the democratic governance system needed to fuel inclusive connectivity in Asia-Pacific.
Unlocking Connectivity for All
In keeping with his deep convictions of democratic, grassroots ICT governance, Lu Heng has placed wider community education and skills development at the heart of his efforts in this space. In 2019, he founded the LARUS Foundation with an overarching mission to "make universal Internet education accessible to all." In the ensuing years, Lu Heng has leveraged LARUS's significant resources, expertise and industry relationships to train the next generation of digital governance leaders in emerging digital countries.
Through its flagship Fellowship Programme, the LARUS Foundation has facilitated the participation of over one thousand students in high-level governance conferences and policymaking forums around the world. Beyond providing crucial skills development opportunities for young people—particularly those from underserved communities—this initiative has equally benefited established industry experts with the insights of the new generations, thus fostering more representative and innovative policymaking.
Moreover, the LARUS Foundation collaborates with like-minded NGOs and universities to expand access to digital education and internship opportunities, as well as workshops and training sessions on central issues for the future of open, democratic Internet and telecoms governance. Looking ahead, Lu Heng is convinced that training young people in emerging economies and facilitating their industry entry will be fundamental to ramping up connectivity in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region and, more broadly, to ensuring that the global governance system reflects the increasing diversity of the connected world.
As the Asia-Pacific region embarks on a journey toward inclusive digital transformation, partnerships with visionary leaders like Lu Heng will be essential. His commitment to accessible ICT infrastructure and leadership in promoting universal connectivity make him a natural ally in driving the region's digital ambitions.
