AJC to Host BIMP-EAGA Virtual Symposium Series

The ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) will organize a series of virtual symposium on Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area or BIMP-EAGA on November 18 and 25, and December 2 and 9, 2021. The theme of the virtual symposium series is "New Business Opportunities and Creating Sustainable Socio-Economic Landscape in BIMP-EAGA".

The BIMP-EAGA was launched in 1994 to spur development in remote and less developed areas in the four participating Southeast Asian countries. These areas are geographically far from the national capitals, yet strategically close to each other. These states and provinces account for over 60% of the land area of the BIMP-EAGA countries; yet they make up less than 20% of their population and 18% of the labor force.

The symposium series would focus on four of the five strategic pillars of BIMP-EAGA VISION 2025 namely, Connectivity, Food Basket, Environment, and Socio-cultural and Education*. Based on the perspectives of Free and Open Indo-Pacific and ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific which share many relevant fundamental principles, the symposium series aims to give both BIMP-EAGA and Japanese stakeholders an occasion to discuss and better understand the challenges as well as the business opportunities in the region. The symposium series also hopes to be able to present possible areas of collaboration for Japan - BIMP-EAGA and transform the challenges of socio-economic development into new business opportunities.

The first session of the series will be on Thursday, 18 November 2021 as below. Details of the rest of the sessions will be announced in due course on the AJC website. (https://www.asean.or.jp/en/)

*A symposium to discuss BIMP-EAGA Tourism is scheduled to be held aside from this symposium series. Details will be announced on AJC website in due course.

1^st Session of "New Business Opportunities and Creating Sustainable Socio-Economic Landscape in BIMP-EAGA"
- Connectivity Pillar -

Date/Time:

Thursday, 18 November 2021, 10:50 AM - 02:10 PM (Japan time)

Venue:

Zoom Online

Program:

• Opening Ceremony
  Welcome Remarks
    Dr. HIRABAYASHI, Kunihiko, Secretary General of ASEAN-Japan Centre
  Message
    Mr. MIYAKE, Shingo, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan
  Keynote Address
    Dr. Airlanga Hartarto, Minister, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Republic of Indonesia

• Presentations on Connectivity Pillar ?Recent Developments, Challenges and Opportunities
  Transportation Linkages (Presenter: Malaysia)
  ICT (Presenter: Malaysia)
  Energy (Presenter: Indonesia)
  Trade & Investment (Presenter: Philippines)
  BIMP-EAGA Connectivity and Japan ? A case of infrastructure cooperation by Tobishima Construction

Organizer:

ASEAN-Japan Centre

Co-organizer:

BIMP-EAGA Secretariat

Capacity:

300 people

Language:

English and Japanese (Simultaneous interpretation)

Registration:

Free
Please register from the link below to participate:
https://data.asean.or.jp/form/seminar/app_seminar.aspx?id=34373260
(Click on "English" on the top right corner of the website)
For participants outside Japan, instead of your telephone number please use 0000000000 in filling up the registration form.