Izah Azahari
The three-day Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Strategic Planning Meeting (SPM) began at Mulia Hotel yesterday.
Permanent Secretary (Economy, Trade and Industry) at the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah binti Haji Ahmad Ariffin officiated the opening.
Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah in her welcoming remarks highlighted a number of directives from the 25th BIMP-EAGA Ministerial Meeting, including the ‘Accelerating Cooperation Together BEV2025 Mid-Term Review (MTR)’ and the need to lay the groundwork for BIMP-EAGA’s Post 2025 agenda.
She commended the timely organisation of the Post BIMP-EAGA Vision 2025 Forum, which will add value to the substantive discussion and serve as reference for the formulation of EAGA’s own agenda post 2025.
Invited speakers include representatives from the Asian Development Bank, ASEAN Secretariat and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
The meeting’s agenda include discussions on existing rolling pipelines of projects (RPOPs), identify RPOPs for the period of 2023 to 2025, and the implementation plan for these projects and initiatives.
Deputy Permanent Secretary (Trade and Industry) at the MOFE Mohammad Harris bin Brigadier General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Haji Ibrahim was also present.
A BIMP-EAGA Senior Officials’ Retreat will be held tomorrow to discuss the initiatives being undertaken in the sub-region, including its cooperation with development partners Australia, China, South Korea and Japan.
