The economy has grown rapidly, with real per capita income doubling in the 12 years to 2013. Human development has improved, marked by a significant decline in poverty and gains across a range of socioeconomic variables. The key sectors of the economy have gone from strength to strength, with Cambodia now the world’s 8th largest rice exporter and Asia’s 10th largest garment producer. The to…
The Regional State of the Coral Triangle (RSCT) provides benchmarks on the biophysical, governance, and socioeconomic attributes of the six Coral Triangle countries, also known as CT6—Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste—and the threats, vulnerabilities, and emerging issues in each country and in the CT6 as a collective unit. Using t…
The Maldives, a chain of 26 coral atolls to India’s southwest, is one of the smallest countries in Asia and the Pacific by population and land area. Its estimated 341,200 people are widely dispersed over 188 inhabited islands across an archipelago more than 800 kilometers long and 130 kilometers wide. The capital city, Malé, is home to one-third of the people, yet has a total land area of le…
This publication is based on an Asian Development Bank Technical Assistance (TA) implemented by the National Development Planning Agency in Indonesia. The TA was financed by The Netherlands Trust Fund under the Water Financing Partnership Facility for the project “TA 8432-INO: Improving Water Sector Planning, Management, and Development.” The report aims to disseminate the TA outputs of t…
The success story of economic growth in Southeast Asia over the past few decades is well known. It resulted from an outward-looking strategy of export-oriented growth, coupled with openness to foreign direct investment by more developed economies both within Asia and outside, generally market-friendly policies, and extensive investment in infrastructure. It led to deep economic integration of S…