CAREC Workshop on Economic Corridor Development

The workshop, jointly organized by regional programs CAREC and the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT), aimed to

• use detailed case studies to provide participants a comprehensive and practical overview of the corridor development process from conception to implementation, and
• elicit views from country representatives on specific type and location of corridors they may be interested in pursuing.

The economic corridor development approach uses transport routes to provide a backbone for regional cooperation projects and activities, clustering these along transport corridors.

Economic corridor development is central to several regional cooperation programs supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), including CAREC and the IMT-GT.

While the workshop drew upon examples such as the Bangkok-Penang/Kuala Lumpur-Singapore trade route and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, it focused particularly on Malaysia’s experience in developing economic corridors.

Malaysia has five corridors included in its national plans. Two are in Sabah and Sarawak while the other three are in peninsular Malaysia: the Northern Corridor Economic Region, the East Coast Economic Region, and the Iskandar Malaysia.

ADB East Asia Department Director General Ayumi Konishi opened and chaired the sessions along with Central and West Asia Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division Director Vicky Tan.

Malaysia’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) CEO and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala gave the keynote address.