This pre-feasibility study develops a practical and implementable program to develop the Sarawak (Malaysia)–West Kalimantan (Indonesia) border area (within a broad geographic context), based on specific industry value chains. It identifies concrete and high-impact projects that will advance implementation of an integrated border area development program for West Kalimantan. It maps the optimal configuration of Sarawak–West Kalimantan cross-border trade and investment in goods and services; and, concurrently, provides the design of a border area development plan for the two territories. As a pre-feasibility study, we examine a wide range of industry options and determine which projects are economically viable within the socioeconomic, institutional, and political context of Sarawak and West Kalimantan. We follow the same analytical approach as that for the pilot project study of North Kalimantan and Sabah, which serves as a high-profile demonstration pre-feasibility study for this and other border area development programs.

This report updates a scoping study that was carried out by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2014 on the development of a border economic area between Malaysia and Thailand. Following that report, the two governments decided to initially focus on the border economic area (BEA) in the Malaysian state of Kadah and the Thai province of Songkhla since it handles the largest volume of cross-border movement of goods and people.

The present report updates development since 2014 in that area.The project builds on the IMT-GT connectivity corridors that serve as the channel through which development is to disseminate to areas throughout the sub-region. Impact of economic area along Malaysia-Thailand border is expected to link to Indonesia through connectivity to other corridors and serve as a sub-regional-level model for IMT-GT.

For a video on the project, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpgpN8Y2dYk&feature=youtu.be.

This study maps the optimal configuration of North Kalimantan–Sabah cross-border trade and investment in goods and services; and, concurrently, it provides a preliminary (pre-feasibility) design of a border area development plan for the two territories. The options for moving project proposals forward are elaborated in sufficient detail and contain the needed concrete measures that will permit the overall collaboration program to move through subsequent stages of development into the final implementation and operational phases.

There are six objectives to the study. The first is to analyze existing trade patterns between Sabah and North Kalimantan and the competitive advantages of the two territories. The second is to propose a border economic area spread over a wide geographic area that covers a network of interrelated activities. The third is to investigate a range of cross-border trade and investment opportunities in specific goods and services that can serve as high-profile, demonstrable projects for the border economic area. The fourth is to determine the preference orderings of project features by key stakeholders such as government and development partners, commercial entities, and the local population. The fifth is to estimate the net monetary returns for the project portfolio, ranks stakeholders’ non-monetary preferences, and incorporate the latter results into the net monetary returns. And the sixth is to provide an overall program appraisal for the set of projects, including an impact analysis of connectivity options.

This study examines potential investment opportunities for cross-border value chains in the economic corridors of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

It offers an investment perspective that is grounded on extensive interviews with company representatives and public sector officials. Qualitative and quantitative-based surveys were conducted over a six-week period by the study team that interviewed 70 companies distributed over 20 industry classifications or divisions in six BIMP-EAGA corridor states and provinces. The surveys were carried out through one-on-one interviews with company representatives and the results were used to rate not only investment opportunities in different industries, but also soft and hard infrastructural conditions that affect the investment climate.

This study examines the investment climate impacting on decisions to invest in the economic corridors of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA). The key factors identified by businesses as impacting on their investment decisions in BIMP-EAGA’s corridors are complementarities in cross-border production activities and services, investment incentives, hard and soft infrastructure, the regulatory environment, governance, and other issues affecting cross-border investments.

This monograph deals with the emergence and characteristics of special border zones in Thailand and how they are able to deal with the range of situations that exist along the country’s borders. It brings together practical tools and experiences surrounding Thailand’s border area development. Its emphasis is on new directions being adopted to drive economic growth and social development in those regions that could otherwise lag behind the rapid growth of agglomerations near major international gateways.

It provides the basic tools and methodologies required to adequately evaluate and plan the location, coverage, incentives and financing for border development areas. In so doing, it emphasizes practical issues needed to implement special border development zones in ways that ensure that the choice of projects, programs and institutions designated for the border areas are based on international best practices.

It covers special border zones at three levels: first, it describes their characteristics in terms of common features and operational components; second, it covers the overall strategic approach to their design and adaption to specific area requirements; and, third, it provides details on practical steps involved in their implementation and operationalization.

The report provides a review and analysis of the findings from the scoping study on the proposed Malaysian–Thailand Special Border Economic Zone (SBEZ). The coverage of the study is guided by the recommendations of the IMT-GT Special Implementation Task Force on the Establishment of a Special Border Economic Zone (hereafter TF-SBEZ) at its meeting in Penang, Malaysia on 22 November 2013. At that time, the TF-SBEZ determined that that present study should be a stand-alone study, comprehensive in nature and cover in-depth all the SBEZ components for each of the eight border crossing areas in the Thai-Malaysian border, including linkages to Indonesia.

Based on those findings, the TF-SBEZ requested that the present study make recommendations to the Task Force on the possible location(s) of the SBEZ. The study is part of a broader project that intends to support the establishment of an SBEZ that will help to attract investors in productive activities that promote subregional value chains in order to stimulate cross-border trade and investment, serve as a catalyst to commerce along the IMT-GT corridors and help to substantially improve the social and economic welfare of the population along the border provinces.

ADB technical assistance project on Building Lao PDR's Capacity to Develop Special Economic Zones (TA 7188) aims to strengthen local capacities and the country’s overall SEZ regulatory environment. It initially envisaged the building of the Lao PDR’s capacity to develop SEZs by focusing on the Savan-Seno Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) along the Savannakhet portion of the GMS East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC). It intended to promote the Savan-Seno SEZ Authority (SEZA) as a future national SEZ organization and help prepare a national SEZ decree. The end result of these efforts was the approval of national SEZ degree (No. 443/PM), and the establishment of a National Committee for Special Economic Zone (NCSEZ) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The establishment of a national regulatory and institutional framework for SEZs led to an expansion of the TA’s scope from that of capacity building at the provincial level to that of supporting the country-wide NCSEZ and line ministries involved in regulating SEZs throughout the Lao PDR.

The objective of this report is twofold: First, for TA 7188, (a) it evaluates the outcomes and outputs of TA 7188; (b) it assesses the relevance of those results to the objectives of sustainable economic growth and job creation; and (c) it identifies any shortcomings that still need to be addressed. Secondly, for the Seventh National Social and Economic Development Plan’s (7thNSEDP) goal of achieving an inclusive, private sector led growth, it assesses the effectiveness and relevance of the Government’s SEZ policies, especially that of the Prime Minister’s ‘Decree on Special Economic Zone and Specific Economic Zone in the Lao PDR’.

Successful implementation among 4 large farmer groups of value chain mapping and clustering of organic vegetables along East-West Economic Corridor of Greater Mekong Subregion.

Trade-related poverty impact assessment of cross-border trade impact on poverty and social issues along East-West Economic Corridor of Greater Mekong Subregion.