Regional Public Goods

Rapid economic growth and technological advancement provided unprecedented benefits to the Asian region. This also increased the connectivity among the countries in the region and facilitated the transfer of regional public goods (RPGs). However, providing regional infrastructure as a means towards regional integration also has its share of challenges, from addressing environmental concerns to establishing a systematic methodology for project management and appraisal techniques at the regional level. Furthermore, while it is widely recognized that cross-border transport infrastructure and trade facilitation are important, the understanding of the opportunities and the impact for economic growth are still limited.

To provide senior government officials from countries in the Asia-Pacific region with learning opportunities regarding these issues, ADBI held a seminar-workshop, Cross-Border Infrastructure Management: Managing Regional Public Goods, on 12-15 November 2007. The event involved collaboration with a number of partner institutions such as ADB headquarters, Japan's Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT), and UNESCAP as well as universities and research institutions.

In his keynote speech, Todd Sandler said that RPGs assist in the development of countries and of regionalization but that they are much harder to deal with compared to global public goods. During the four-day seminar-workshop, the participants learned about RPGs, issues and challenges related to crossborder infrastructure management, good practices, and lessons learned from case studies and practical examples such as the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC). A presentation by Ronnie Butiong of ADB focused on the GMS Economic Cooperation Program, and how infrastructure shows direct links to growth and poverty reduction and social and economic development (see Tables). The group discussions and presentations provided an opportunity for the participants to share and learn about country experiences in the area of cross-border infrastructure management. While the participants commended the workshop some proposed that a more in-depth seminar specifically on project appraisal methods should be in place. Furthermore, Toru Tatara, the seminar coordinator, indicated that RPGs are not limited to infrastructure network but encompass other environmental and health issues which should be targeted in future programs.

View papers and presentations from the seminar-workshop.

Worapot Manupipatpong, ADBI’s Director of Capacity Building and Training, informed the participants that best practices management will definitely be incorporated in future capacity-building seminar-workshops.