New technologies and countries of Asia and Africa
A reviewof the reports at the section “New Technologies and Countries of Asia and Africa” at the conference “Economic, Socio-Political, Ethno-Confessional Problems of Asian and African Countries”, March 15-17, 2021, organized by the Center for Study of Common Problems of the ModernEast (CSICCE) of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences is presented. Presentations on theproblems of new technologies were made by researchers of the Institute of Oriental Studies, InstituteofAfrica of theRussian Academy of Sciences; professors, graduate and undergraduate students of Institute of African and Asian Studies of M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Institute of Oriental Countries. The reports addressed such issues as the development of vertical farms in the context of urban agriculture in Eastern countries, the energy transition and the role of foreign economic relations in this process. It was shown how digital technology entered the life of an African village, in Mali. Particular attention was paid to such problems as the role of ICT in the fight against COVID-19, the growing importance of the digital economy inEasterncountries inthe context ofthepandemic, the useofdigital technologies in the fight against the pandemic in Japan, China. in East and South-East Asia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Arab countries. theroleof social networks during the “Arab Spring”,the development of AIand robotics in Japan, 3D-printing in South Korea.