PONTIANAK - The development of today's global condition is still in multidimension crisis as the result of COVID-19, geo-politic conflict, energy and food crisis, and climate change. "To maintain the stability and competitiveness of the areas, BIMP-EAGA needs to be more proactive in the architectural dynamic of Indo-Pacific," Deputy Minister for Coordination of International Economic Cooperation at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Edi Pambudi, stated in the 30th Senior Officials Meeting of BIMP-EAGA that was held on Thursday (11/24) in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. Indonesia took over the relay of Leadership of BIMP-EAGA from Philippine and will become the Leader in 2022-2023 with the theme "Support Competitiveness and Climate Resilience".

Several sectors that need more attention are related to food resilience, energy resilience of the sub-regional through the improvement of connectivity. Edi added that BIMP-EAGA also needs to improve the cooperation with sub-regional cooperation like IMT-GT (Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle) and GMS (Greater Mekong Subregion) to improve ASEAN role in the sector's architecture.

Another issue discussed is the result of Mid Term Review (MTR) of the 2025 BIMP-EAGA Vision (BEV 2025) as seen from the transportation, ICT, trading facilities and investment, energy, agri-business, and tourism. Institutions need to strengthen in implementing the result of MTR to achieve the 2025 Vision. "I support the nomenclature change of Trade Investment Facilitation Cluster into Trade Investment Promotion and Enterprises Development Cluster, and to form Working Group on Youth and Sports Development and Working Group on Security," Edi stated.

Each of the Head Clusters of BIMP-EAGA, that consist of 8 clusters, disclosed the report of each work development and achievement. Several important achievements in 2022 are the completion of five water transportation projects in the transportation sector, the expansion of satellite-based broadband network to reach the rural areas of EAGA with 100% target in 2025, the completion of Tanjung Redep-Tanjung Selor HTVL, the One Borneo Quarantine initiative finishing, the exploration of new potential in the production of seaweeds and cows, and the green cities initiative in Kendi and Kota Kinabalu.

Some highlighted agendas in the discussion are: i) the re-opening of land, air, and water route post-pandemic to support trading activities and tourism; ii) the optimization of food production potency in the area of EAGA to improve food resilience; iii) and the integration of electrical energy and cooperation to develop renewable energy to secure energy safety in the sub-region.

Businessmen as the prime mover of BIMP-EAGA are encouraged to participate more in supporting the economy integration in the areas of EAGA. "Private sectors are the prime mover for the growth of EAGA through the job creation. Moreover, governments need to mediate the collaboration of G-to-B so the relationship of B-to-B can improve and the private sectors can optimize the potency," Edi explained.

"I appreciate the support from ADB and ASEAN Secretariat to BIMP-EAGA through the capacity strengthening and other techniques assistances," Edi said. Edi specifically hoped that the support from both institutions can also be used to strengthen the system and infrastructure maintenance in the future to create seamless connectivity and movement for the trading supply chain. (ekon.go.id)