Regions and Countries

	Table of Contents
p. 8 of 20 BACK | NEXT I. Introduction II. Background and Rationale III. Economic and Social Trends IV. Program Review - Lessons Learned V. Strategic Directions of the GMS Program for 2001-2003 A. Strategic Thrusts for 2000-2002 B. Overall Program Strategy for 2001-2003 C.Linkage with the Country Assistance Plans VI. Sector Properties and Proposed Program for 2001-2003 VII. ADB's Operational Program VIII. Coordination with Donor Agencies and Regional Institutions IX. Cofinancing and Catalyzing External Resources

GMS Assistance Plan : V. Strategic Directions of the GMS Program for 2001-2003

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C. Linkage with the Country Assistance Plans

56. The strategies embodied in the GMS-AP 2001-2003 are intended to complement the ADB’s program of assistance to individual GMS countries. The GMS-AP for 2001-2003 was thus prepared in coordination with the preparation of the Country Assistance Plans (CAPs) for the same period. Prior to the fielding of the Country Programming Missions, consultations among ADB staff were held to exchange views on the project pipelines. The GMS-AP identifies projects and activities where benefits and synergies can be realized, and made to complement national projects.

57. Subregional projects bring incremental benefits and create synergies that may not be possible or apparent had these projects been pursued independently. These include economies of scale resulting from market expansion, increased trade flows, and reduction in environmental mitigation costs through collective action. However, subregional projects with medium-and long-term benefits may not necessarily be reflected in the CAPs which are governed by nationally-oriented strategies. Regional projects split into the different CAPs have also made coordination among the concerned countries difficult.

58. Ongoing and planned high-priority subregional road projects and ADB's country programs for 2001-2003 for some of the GMS countries clearly complement each other. In the case of landlocked Lao PDR, where road infrastructure development, while needed for international trade, is also critical to providing increased access to markets and economic opportunities particularly for the rural communities, ADB's program includes a Rural Access Road Project in 2000 and a Rural Access Road Project II in 2003, both designed to improve rural access to markets. In the case of the PRC, ADB's assistance to the development of highways in Yunnan Province⁴ that promote regional cooperation, also supports ADB's strategic thrust for PRC of promoting growth to reduce poverty in the poor inland provinces as well as the PRC Government's "Go-west policy." For Cambodia, subregional cooperation is a key feature of ongoing assistance in the transport sector, in particular, supporting the development of the first priority subregional road corridor, R1: Bangkok-Phnom Penh-Ho Chi Minh City Vung Tau Road Project. On the other hand, enhanced economic viability brought about by the regional cooperation dimension of ongoing and planned road projects (i.e., GMS: Phnom Penh-Ho Chi Minh City Highway Improvement Project and the planned Road Network Improvement Project II for 2002) are expected to support private sector development, which is one of the three key priority areas of ADB's recently-adopted Country Operational Strategy.

59. ADB's future involvement in the development of economic corridors in the GMS is reflected in its pipeline of loans and technical assistance at both the national and subregional levels. ADB's CAP for Thailand for 2001-2003 includes projects that will support the development of economic corridors in the GMS, while at the same time, target poor areas in the country. The loan projects for Border Towns Urban Development (2001), North-Northeast Region Area Development (2002), and Economic Corridors Development (2003), and their accompanying project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) projects will be closely integrated with the development of the East-West and North-South Economic Corridors. In addition, as indicated earlier, ADB's loan pipeline for 2002 for Lao PDR includes the proposed GMS: Northern Economic Corridor Project, and for 2003, the Rural Roads II Project. ADB's Country Assistance Plan for Viet Nam for 2001-2003, which will concentrate up to one-third of ADB operations on the Central region, will support the development of the East-West Economic Corridor. It will also support the Kunming-Haiphong Transport Corridor Project. ADB operations in Viet Nam will focus on a combination of commune-level poverty reduction and income generation, and improved livelihoods through water resource and coastal zone management, to be complemented by road and urban infrastructure provision. On the subregional level, a regional technical assistance project is under way for Preventing HIV/AIDS Among Mobile Populations in the GMS⁵ which will enhance capacities of governments and related agencies to organize HIV/AIDS prevention activities by developing tool kits and guidelines for mobile populations. In addition, a regional technical assistance for Drug Eradication is planned for 2000 to, among other things, disseminate information on best practices on eradication of the production of, and demand for, illegal drugs in the GMS.

60. The preparation of the GMS program strategy paper will be initiated in late 2000, and will involve consultations with GMS Senior Officials during the GMS Mid-Term Review Meeting in the first quarter of 2001. The country program strategy papers, which are in various stages of being updated, as well as the results of the poverty assessments in the GMS countries, will serve as important inputs in the preparation of the GMS program strategy paper. This paper will clearly define the operational strategy for the region, including the role of economic corridors, and the synergies among the various sectoral interventions. The GMS program strategy paper is expected to be presented to, and endorsed by, the Tenth GMS Ministerial Conference in mid-2001.

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