ADB assists developing nine priority sectors in Asia

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is concentrating on developing nine sectors including infrastructure in Sri Lanka and the far eastern region including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to foster economic development.   

“Asian Development Bank has assisted sub regional economic cooperation in the Greater Mekong Sub region (GMS) to enhance their economic relations, covering nine priority sectors,” said ADB in Sri Lanka Country Director Rita O’ Sullivan at the recently held Interactive evening of the Sri Lanka-Vietnam Greater Mekong Sub-Region Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

The nine priority sectors developed in the GMS region included agriculture, energy, environment, human resource development, investment, telecommunications, tourism, transport infrastructure and transport and trade facilitation.

The Greater Mekong Sub region has enjoyed a period of sustained and buoyant economic growth over the last decade averaging 6.5 per cent. Over the last decade, the Greater Mekong Sub region economic cooperation program has mobilised over $14 billion in completed and planned investments. It has facilitated and delivered multi-modal transport systems, anchored in transport/economic corridors, energy interconnections and investments in the information superhighway-laying the basis for expanded physical connectivity, enhanced production and employment opportunities and improved livelihoods.

The GMS Transport Sector Strategy 2006–2015 identified nine road corridors that will form the sub region’s network of transport links. They form the base for the development of ‘economic corridors,’ which integrate infrastructure development with trade, investment and other economic potentials of a set of specific geographical area, while at the same time undertaking efforts to address social, environmental and other potentially adverse impacts of increased connectivity.

Tourism is another dynamic sector in the Greater Mekong Sub region and continues to be an important component of the overall GMS Economic Cooperation Program. Over the years and despite the recent global economic slowdown, the tourism industry has remained resilient and continues to serve as a driving force for poverty reduction by creating jobs, generating foreign exchange revenues and enhancing the economic value of natural and cultural heritage assets. It has served as an instrument for empowering local communities through community-based tourism, livelihood activities and for promoting gender equality by linking women to the tourism economy through direct and indirect employment opportunities.

The ADB has been an active partner of the GMS countries in the collective effort to harness the potential of the tourism industry to contribute to poverty reduction in the GMS.

Sri Lanka – Vietnam Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce established in 2010 spread its wings in July 2012 to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand of the Greater Mekong Sub region with the objective of further expansion of trade, investment and tourism between Sri Lanka and the region. As a result, the name of the Sri Lanka – Vietnam Business Council was supplemented as Sri Lanka – Vietnam Business Council – Greater Mekong Sub Region – Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. The Greater Mekong Sub Region (GMS) is a natural economic area bound together by the Mekong River, covering 2.6 million square kilometres and a combined population of around 326 million people.