The World Bank has agreed to advise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the best ways to monitor its progress toward regional integration.
The ASEAN Secretariat and the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific Region division have signed an agreement to strengthen the monitoring capacity of the ASEAN over its progress toward the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.
“Through this program, ASEAN will not only be in a position to monitor its integration progress but also to come up with appropriate recommendations to address the identified gaps to further enhance the timely implementation of the AEC,” said Dr. Lim Hong Hin, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for the AEC.
He added: “Effective monitoring will facilitate the adoption of the remaining liberalization and regulatory reforms and will move us closer to our goals of an integrated ASEAN.”
The new partnership area between the ASEAN Secretariat and the World Bank complements their ongoing collaboration in the areas of disaster management, disaster risk insurance, infrastructure financing, social protection, food security, and global development and learning network.
“The ten ASEAN economies together constitute a market of US$1.8 trillion, measured by GDP, a very significant economic block.” said Bert Hofman, World Bank chief economist for the East Asia Pacific Region. “Deepening regional integration through the ASEAN Economic Community can become a new driver of economic growth for the East Asia region.”
Under the agreement, the World Bank will help prepare joint ASEAN-WB integration monitoring reports, collect and store policy data, and organize technical workshops for ASEAN officials.
Photo: Ezry A Rahman
