James Kon
The Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Strategic Planning Meeting/Senior Official Meeting (SPM/SOM) was held via video conference recently.
The meeting was chaired by Philippines’ Under Secretary for Department of Trade and Industry Janet M Lopoz.
Attending the virtual meeting were BIMP-EAGA senior officials, chairs of BIMP-EAGA clusters and working groups, BIMP-EAGA Facilitation Centre (BIMP-FC), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Chair of BIMP-EAGA Business Council.
Permanent Secretary (Economy) at the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah binti Haji Ahmad Ariffin and officers from the Trade Division of the MoFE represented Brunei Darussalam.
The meeting took note on the presentations by chairs of the eight BIMP-EAGA Clusters – transport; trade and investment facilitation; information and communication technology; power and energy infrastructure; agribusiness; tourism; environment; and socio-cultural education – which highlighted among others 2022 deliverables and implementation plan, list of rolling pipelines of projects (RPoPs) for 2020-2022, convergence projects and priority infrastructure projects (PIPs).
The meeting also provided guidance and recommendations, to leverage on social media platforms to strengthen coordination, support projects on clean and green energy and environmental sustainability, encourage to make reference on Framework of Circular Economy of ASEAN Economic Community and supports projects related to tourism recovery.
The meeting took note the progress and discussed the way forward on BIMP-EAGA cooperation with development partners particularly on the implementation of projects with China and South Korea.
The meeting also looked forward to the possible signing of the Framework of Economic Cooperation with Japan and to continue consultation with Australia on the proposal to become BIMP-EAGA development partner.
The meeting took note on the 25th BIMP-EAGA Ministers Meeting and Related Meetings which will be held tentatively on November 23-26, in Pontianak, Indonesia.
