ADB study on Eaga prospects to be presented in Malaysia

RESULTS of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) Corridor Investment Profiling Study are set to be presented to senior officials at the 19th BIMP-Eaga Ministerial meeting on December 8 to 10 in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

The study funded and conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) started last May of this year.

Romeo L. Castañaga, BIMP-Eaga Small and Medium Enterprises Development (SMED) Cluster secretariat and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Davao del Norte director told reporters Thursday at the sidelines of the 8th National Coffee Summit at the SMX Convention Center that the draft of the study will identify investment priorities in the sub-economic regions.

u0093The results of the study, which the ADB had started last May will be out this December. It will show identified, confirmed, and formalized priority investments opportunities in BIMP-Eaga,” he said.

Castañaga underscored that in the Philippines, possible priority investments will be devoted to the country’s aqua marine resources, food corridor projects and ecotourism and biodiversity projects especially in the Surigao-Davao Oriental Pacific Rim, among others.

Based on the ADB website, the study is under the bank’s project dubbed as “Advancing Regional Cooperation and Integration through BIMP-Eaga and Indonesia–Malaysia–Thailand Growth Triangle. The project type is technical assistance (TA).

The project is assisting on the compilation and assessment of key corridors following the phase one of the study, which determined a set of uniform templates for which investment and trade information.

At present, stock-taking of information (templates, fieldwork) on the corridor initiative is ongoing in consultation with the countries.

The TA “intends to enhance the capacity of the BIMP-EAGA and IMT-GT sub-regional programs, especially in strengthening their contributions to the Asean Economic Community (AEC) and beyond.

In particular, the TA will support the identification, implementation and monitoring of priority regional cooperation and integration projects to fully integrate Southeast Asian region.”