by Reinhard Hohler, Chiang Mai
Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda last month praised the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand for their strong commitment to subregional co-operation, but said the grouping now needed to deliver on its initial promise of accelerating economic development in its poorest provinces.
“We all recognise that the challenges ahead are formidable,” Mr. Kuroda said in his remarks to the 5th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Leaders’ Summit. “Further concrete actions are needed if IMT-GT is to remain viable and begin showing concrete development impacts.”
The IMT-GT was formed in 1993 to develop the three countries’ poorest
regions. It now covers more than 70 million people in 14 provinces in
Southern Thailand, 8 states of Peninsular Malaysia, and the 10 provinces of Sumatra in Indonesia.
In his remarks, Mr. Kuroda described the IMT-GT as a critical building block for achieving an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community by 2015, which aims to transform ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour, and freer flow of capital.
The IMT-GT has identified 10 key projects for development at a total cost of $5.2 billion. Mr. Kuroda said it was critical that implementation of some of these projects – which will increase physical linkages through the building of infrastructure like roads, power lines and ports, as well as develop much closer collaboration between the public and private sectors – should begin as soon as possible.
“The list of priority connectivity projects need not be long, but it should
be definitive, and our ability to implement a few high-impact projects will clearly demonstrate the merits of sub-regional co-operation,” he said.
Mr. Kuroda announced that ADB would provide $1 million in technical
assistance to help countries prepare projects with potential for
public-private partnership fundings, and to design a Sub-regional Project Development Facilty, funded by member governments, to assist in the project identification, design and implementation process.
“It is a privilege for ADB to be engaged in supporting the realization of
the IMT-GT, which is an important initiative in sub-regional co-operation,”
said Mr. Kuroda.
