Infrastructure and Regional Cooperation Flagship study: 3rd Workshop-Book Preparation

The study's third workshop on Book Preparation, held in Beijing, the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 21 to 22 October 2008, focused on drafting the first volume of the book: Seamless Asia: Infrastructure for Sustainable and Integrated Development.

The workshop was jointly organized by ADB headquarters, ADBI, and Ministry of Finance, People's Republic of China.

The workshop drew 40 international experts and policymakers, mostly from the PRC. Authors presented drafts of the five chapters:

1. The Need for Infrastructure
2. The Benefits of Infrastructure Network
3. Towards Smoother and Larger Trade
4. Policies and Institutions for Effective Infrastructure
5. Financing Infrastructure

ADB's Klaus Gerhaeusser delivered welcome remarks, followed by opening remarks from PRC Ministry of Finance Director General Zheng Xiaosong, and an overview of the study by ADBI Dean, Masahiro Kawai. Biswa N Bhattacharyay, Special Advisor to the Dean and task manager of the study, presented the objectives, scope, structure, and expected outputs of the study. Mahani Zainal Abidin, Director General, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia delivered a talk on the Proposal for East Asian Infrastructure Fund.

The major conclusions of this workshop are:

• address the role and significance of regional infrastructure, including the needs for and spillover effects caused by regional infrastructure projects;
• re-estimate the investment requirements for infrastructure from 2009 to 2020;
• identify impact of current global financial crisis on infrastructure investment in Asia and its implications for national and regional projects;
• identify distribution of costs and benefits by regional infrastructure across different countries as well as different groups of people within a country, and suggest best practices for designing and implementing regional projects;
• address dynamics of transnational infrastructure network in connection with cross-border economic corridors;
• maximize long-term positive impacts (e.g., poverty reduction and trade growth) of regional infrastructure and mitigate its negative impacts;
• draw a policy roadmap for reducing trade and logistics costs, particularly for landlocked and archipelago countries;
• examine and suggest regional coordination mechanism, institutional instruments and nature of governmental commitments in developing regional infrastructure;
• recommend the role of multilateral institutions, such as ADB, in coordinating inter-government actions and policies on infrastructure;
• examine financing modalities and suggest new schemes for efficient financing of regional projects.