The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) launched the IPEF Upskilling Initiative, in support of the objectives of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The Initiative will be a public-private endeavor to support sustainable and inclusive economic growth by providing primarily women and girls in IPEF emerging economies and middle-income partners access to training and education in digital skills.
Fourteen U.S. companies – Amazon and Amazon Web Services, American Tower, Apple, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Edelman Global Advisory (EGA), Google, HP, IBM, MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, Salesforce, and Visa – will each provide 500,000 or more upskilling opportunities that use digital tools for primarily women and girls in IPEF emerging economies and middle-income partners by 2032.
India is taking part in this in this endeavor along with Brunei, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, said, “The Upskilling Initiative not only demonstrates the United States’ commitment to creating a more vibrant and competitive Indo-Pacific region, but also our intention of sending a strong signal to IPEF partners that we, along with some of America’s leading private sector companies, want to build lasting relationships and provide concrete benefits to participants in the framework.”
Some of the opportunities provided by the U.S. companies include:
- Providing training for girls in fields such as data science, cyber-security, AI, and robotics;
- Developing and providing female small business owners with a comprehensive digital toolkit that includes website planning and development, search engine optimization and marketing, budgeting, and social media;
- Supporting digital literacy and entrepreneurship training for rural girls and women via solar-paneled mobile bus training centers; and
- Training authors and illustrators in digital content creation designed to empower girls and provide that content through low bandwidth reading apps to enhance girls’ literacy.
The program will be administered by The Asia Foundation, a non-profit international development organization with expertise in supporting good governance, women’s empowerment, and inclusive economic growth throughout the region.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
