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.
The maritime zone that separates the Southern Philippines from Sabah is a space of largely unregulated economic activity and movement of goods. Informal barter trade and the movement of people, products and produce by small, woodenhulled boats is central to economies on all sides of the border; particularly in the provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Basilan, where goods from Sabah are cheaper and more plentifully available than those produced or imported elsewhere in the Philippines. Familial and ethnic ties sustain sea-faring trading communities which sit across state boundaries. Informal cross-border trade in the maritime zone that separates the Sulu archipelago in Southern Philippines and Sabah in East Malaysia is an ancient economic and political phenomenon. Also known as barter trade, it dates back centuries, long before the creation of colonial states in the 1500s, and the declaration of independence and legal borders between the two countries in the mid-twentieth century. While the system has evolved over time with the use of money in exchange of goods, the term 'barter trade' is still used to highlight the informality of buying and selling untaxed imported items, and the vital role of traders and transporters in moving these goods across the maritime border. However, while Malaysian authorities have encouraged informal barter trade to continue and flourish, the Philippine government considers these largely unofficial economic activities as illegal trade or smuggling, part and parcel of a looming shadow economy in the region that the state needs to regulate.
