ADB study starts off new growth triangle

ADB study starts off new growth triangle

MANILA (AFP): The creation of a growth triangle comprising the contiguous areas of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand can now be realized with the completion of an Asian Development Bank (ADB)- led study, ADB officials said here yesterday.

"The study is completed, the next stage is implementation," ADB Economist Myo Thant told reporters after a three-day conference at the Manila-based bank, to finalize the report, which will be submitted to representatives of all three countries at a special meeting in Penang in September.

The report, which is more than 700 pages long, is aimed at integrating the economies in North Sumatra and Aceh, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia in a manner similar to the China- Taiwan-Hong Kong growth triangle.

Noritada Morita, ADB programs director, said the program was intended to bring the gross domestic product (GDP) growth to an annual 7.2 percent in the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand growth triangle (IMT-GT) over 10 years.

He could not estimate how high the GDP growth in the area was at present but said areas included in the triangle generally suffered lower economic growth than other parts of their respective countries.

John Newton, a team leader of the study, said trade and investment liberalization was "the center of our policy," but admitted that not all of the recommendations were likely to be adopted by the three countries.

William Thompson, an ADB senior counselor said the "focus has been on policy constraints that would have to be removed to allow trade and investment to flow more freely in the sub-region." He did not specify the constraints.

The report includes both policy recommendations and various project proposals in infrastructure, energy, industry, agriculture and fisheries, that can be implemented both by the governments and private sectors of the three countries.

The ADB officials would not say how much financing would be needed in the short-term to implement the projects, but much of it would have to come from the private sector, particularly commercial and investment banks.