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Regional cooperation and integration (RCI) is pivotal to enhancing economic growth, financial stability, and social inclusion and important for tackling poverty and enhancing institutional stability. Better RCI measures can allow researchers and policy makers to assess the costs and benefits of RCI policies in greater detail. This publication presents highlights of the sessions during the Asian Development Bank's workshop on regional cooperation and integration held on 16 and 17 April 2020. The workshop gathered academics, policy makers, and regional and international organizations to discuss relevant approaches to measuring RCI and its implications for policy assessment.

This book reviews progress with regional cooperation and integration in Asia and the Pacific and explores how it can be reshaped to achieve a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future. Consisting of papers contributed by renowned scholars and Asian Development Bank staff, the book covers four major areas: public goods, trade and investment, financial cooperation, and regional health cooperation. The book emphasizes how the region can better leverage regional integration to realize its vast potential as well as overcome challenges such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

In this paper, I suggest that text mining analysis of regional trade agreements (RTAs) can be a suitable methodology to develop a tangible measure of convergence between RTAs. By utilizing well-established text similarity concepts in related literatures, I attempt to investigate how much RTAs in APEC are converging in terms of how much similar RTA texts are. Furthermore, which areas of RTA converge more or less will be examined. The main results of the study are as follows. The RTAs signed by APEC members are gradually converging over time, and they converged (in terms of 5-gram Jaccard similarity) at an annual average of 8% for all RTAs (both inter- and intra-regional) while 9.7% for intra-regional RTAs only. The areas that converged the most are service and transparency chapters, which show 2.2 times and 1.6 times higher level of convergence than the average, respectively. The objective and intuitive indicators of regional norm convergence are expected to provide a common understanding for setting goals and strategies for regional economic integration in the future.

The unfolding competition between a more aggressive, unilateralist China and a more unpredictable, unilateralist USA heralds the end of the benign post-Cold War order that benefited Southeast Asia and ASEAN.1 As the new strategic disorder sets in, ASEAN's balancing act and aspirations for centrality – both within its diverse membership and in relations with the two great powers – have become more difficult and tenuous. COVID-19, by laying bare the ever-widening chasm between the two superpowers, has heightened fears that ASEAN member states will become more disunited and ASEAN and its broader ASEAN+ groupings will be paralysed.

China has faced enormous problems getting projects off the ground in the countries that need the investment most. Negotiating the interest rate that a country will pay for a loan from a Chinese bank and/or how large a local government or company will take on is often the subject of years of negotiations. Forced or poorly compensated relocation of farmers to make way for a project has prompted endless protests and complaints and has driven many into poverty. The lack of concern by Chinese contractors about environmental damage caused by a project has resulted in governments abandoning some projects. Land acquisition particularly in more democratic countries has prompted some farmers to refuse to move. Corruption and hefty kickbacks have dented Beijing's image and caused delays.

The Lowy Institute hosted the seventh Australia–Papua New Guinea Emerging Leaders Dialogue on 5 and 6 November 2019 in Wewak, Papua New Guinea. The Dialogue is the flagship annual event of the Australia–Papua New Guinea Network, a project of the Lowy Institute to build stronger connections between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The project is supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Dialogue reflects the importance of the Australia–PNG relationship. It brings together 20 emerging leaders from both countries to discuss common challenges and issues and to form new professional connections. The 2019 Dialogue was the first time the event was held in a regional centre in Papua New Guinea. Wewak and East Sepik Province illustrate many of the challenges and opportunities facing regional centres in Papua New Guinea. The region is home to a thriving agricultural industry, and has close links to Australia through the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) between the PNG Defence Force and Australian Defence Force at Moem Barracks. Australia and Wewak are also linked via business, government and community connections.

This policy brief analyses the share of India's trade with its neighbours. The data used is from World Bank's World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) database and the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) database. All trade values are in United States dollars (US$). For India's trade with South Asia, the import and export volumes and shares analysed are from 1988 to 2018; the figures for only 5.6% (2017).4 Enhancing intra-regional trade is necessary to increase connectivity in the South Asian region. Facilitated by the flow of goods, services, people, and knowledge, such an initiative would provide access to new markets as well as attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in diverse sectors. The ensuing economic growth would also play a key role in bridging the trust deficit in the region and raise the opportunity cost of conflict.5 This policy brief maps the trends in India's trade with its neighbours to ascertain the current status of trade connectivity. A comparison with China has also been made considering its increasing presence in India's neighbourhood since 2005. Based on the analysis, the brief concludes with policy recommendations to foster better intra-regional trade.

This Friday, Vietnam hosts the first-ever virtual annual ASEAN Summit. The COVID-19 pandemic, territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, and the US-China trade tensions have severely tested Vietnam's stewardship of the regional grouping. Adapting well to the challenges, Hanoi is living up to its chairmanship theme of cohesive and responsive ASEAN. Hanoi's ties with Singapore are also on a positive trajectory, strengthening ASEAN cooperation and progress.

The Belt and Road Initiative, and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, have new dimensions and new players. But how are these concepts unfolding, and will they move past existing pitfalls?

Do ASEAN people identify themselves first as Southeast Asians, as nationals of their country, or as members of their ethnic or local community? In a heterogeneous region where each country is culturally distinct and each holds on to its hard-earned sovereignty, how does the process of regional community-building fare? As ASEAN declares 2020 as the Year of ASEAN Identity, it is timely to reexamine its regional identity and its implications for creating an ASEAN Community.

The United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 and presented 17 goals and 169 detailed targets to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030. Accordingly, as a member of the United Nations, North Korea also established a new strategic framework for cooperation with the United Nations in 2016 to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This UN Strategic Framework (UNSF) has covered the period 2017-2021 and was cosigned by the UN Country Team (UNCT) led by the Resident Coordinator in DPR Korea. Major UN agencies, including FAO, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, are participating in the UNSF Steering Committee, which currently serves as a representative of UN agencies residing in Pyongyang, and under consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea it has set up Thematic Groups (TGs) and Sectoral Working Groups (SWGs) by detailed issues to coordinate bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects.

Regional cooperation and integration. Regional cooperation and integration (RCI) is a process in which a group of countries actively cooperate to achieve common goals for mutual benefit. This facilitates market-driven regional integration and the production of regional public goods. RCI can encompass different elements, such as promoting and agreeing on trade and investment; developing cross-border infrastructure; deepening regional financial markets; and spurring the cooperation of financial intermediaries, climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, and the harmonization and alignment of sector- and theme-based policies and regulations. RCI has become a valued development strategy; the United Nations recognizes it as an important tool to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Regional cooperation and integration (RCI) is vital for the development of Asia and the Pacific. It plays a critical role in accelerating economic growth, reducing poverty and economic disparity, raising productivity and employment, and strengthening institutions. For the Asian Development Bank, fostering RCI is a cornerstone of its support to its developing member countries and helps amplify the impact of its other investments. This conference report explores opportunities and challenges for accelerating RCI in the region. It focuses on economic corridors, emerging RCI initiatives, cooperation for financial stability and resilience, and regional public goods.

In 2017, the Institute completed a total of 57 research projects/studies in the areas of agriculture (7), competition/trade and industry/regional integration (6), disaster risk reduction and management (3), finance/credit (1), fiscal policy and budget management (2), gender and development (1), governance/regulations/institutions (6), health (2), infrastructure/transportation/communication (3), labor/livelihood/employment (1), poverty and social protection (16), services policy/innovation/research and development (4), and policy tools/statistics/others (5).

This paper maps the items in the proposed WTO Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) with existing initiatives in ASEAN to explore possible synergies between the two.