COTABATO CITY: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help revitalise and sustain economic co-operation in Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) by developing a web-based trade and investment database through a US$300,000 (about RM1.14 million) grant assistance.

The Philippines News Agency (PNA) quoted a statement made by the ADB Philippines financial economist, Thatha Hla, who said the project would be carried out under the Japan Fund for Information and Communication Technology.

It added that the project aimed to develop a trade and investment database that will capture the movement of goods, services and financing within the BIMP-EAGA region.

Hla said regional co-operation efforts have intensified as Southeast Asian economies recover from the Asian financial crisis and the recent global economic downswing.

"Through the database, business sector users can access standardised customs trade data, tailored to their needs for port-to-port cross border trade and investment information." Hla explained.

The database will build on the capacity building efforts in ongoing ADB projects supporting the BIMP-EAGA Facilitation Centre and the East Asean Business Council, a BIMP-EAGA private sector organisation.

Hla, however, said inadequate information on production, distribution, and market access among the member economies - and beween BIMP-EAGA and outside markets - have constrained efforts to integrate the regional production base and market networks.

Data are particularly useful to business and development planners in identifying opportunities for intra-regional trade as well as developing products that can be promoted collectively by the region and marketed in other parts of the world.

Economic development strategies can be formulated and monitored on the basis of the existing reliable raw data and economic indicators.

However, these have not been synthesised or coordinated across teh region and cannot simply be compiled for sub-regional level analysis and aggregation.

Not a single source from which data on product-based trade and associated tariffs can be retrieved.

Although some information on trade flows are recorded at customs checkpoints, it is often either incomplete or not based on consistent definitions of scope and coverage.

Such predicament makes cross-regional comparisons impossible.

In its initial phase, the project will harmonise key indicators and concepts for potential data users such as government, civil society, and the private sector.

Subsequently, the compilation of data to build the database will use the web-based servers under development at the BIMP-EAGA and Association of Southeast Asian Nations Growth Area Facilitation Centre in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, to allow access for updating, reporting, and disseminating information for all interested parties. - Bernama

Taken from Daily Express 18th November 2004