Pontianak – The Deputy Minister for Coordination of International Economic Cooperation at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Edi Prio Pambudi, as the Chair Senior Officials of BIMP-EAGA stated when he led the 30th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) that BIMP-EAGA also needs to improve collaboration with sub-regions like Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) and Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) to improve ASEAN’s roles in the area’s architecture.

 

 

Other issues discussed are the result of the Mid Term Review (MTR) of the 2025 BIMP-EAGA Vision (BEV 2025) as seen from the transportation aspect, ICT, trading facility and investment, energy, agribusiness, and tourism.

 

The achievement of the 2025 Vision needs institutions strengthening in the MTR result implementation.

 

“I support the nomenclature change of Trade Investment Facilitation Cluster into Trade Investment Promotion and Enterprises Development Cluster, and the forming of Working Group on Youth and Sports Development and Working Group on Security,” Deputy Edy said.

 

BIMP-EAGA consists of 8 clusters and in this meeting, each head cluster delivered the improvement report and their achievement. Several important cluster achievements in the 2022 include the completion of five water transportation projects in the transportation sector, the expansion of the satellite-based broadband network access to reach the rural areas of EAGA with the target of 100% in 2025, the finishing of the HTVL project of Tanjung Redep-Tanjung Selor, the finalization of One Borneo Quarantine initiative, exploration of new potential in the production of seaweed and cows, and the initiative of green cities in Kendi and Kota Kinabalu.