Features

Climate Resilient Rice: More Crops per Drop

New rice varieties are being developed and water-saving cultivation technologies promoted to help feed Asia's growing populations.


Free Trade: Untangling Asia’s Noodle Bowl

Over the past decade, trade liberalization initiatives have blossomed across Asia and the Pacific, creating a convoluted 'noodle bowl' of overlapping free trade agreements (FTAs). Here’s a by-the-numbers look at trade liberalization and economic integration in the region.


Greater Mekong Subregion Program: 12 Things to Know

The six member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion Program mark 20 years of economic cooperation in 2012.


Blueprint for a Stable Rice Market

ASEAN nations can help avoid world rice price shocks by reducing export restrictions, placing less emphasis on self-sufficiency, retooling Thailand's rice pledging program, and expanding coordinated rice policies with India and Pakistan, according to a series of working papers from ADB.


Has the world learned from the 2007–2008 food price crisis?

To avoid a repeat of the rice price crisis, ASEAN member countries formulated the ASEAN Integrated Food Security Framework with a Strategic Plan of Action that focuses on establishing a regional emergency rice reserve, facilitating regional rice trade, developing an ASEAN food security information system, and pursuing innovations through research and development.


Storytelling Against Sexually Transmitted Infections

ADB and World Vision Australia are using media productions as a tool to increase awareness of the risks of sexually transmitted infections among indigenous communities in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and Viet Nam.


Ensuring Food Security for a Growing Region

Food security depends on trade as much as it does on production. Rice is a staple food in Asia, and around 90% of all rice is produced and consumed in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. ADB’s agriculture advisor Lourdes Adriano talks about the agenda for the first ASEAN Rice Trade Forum.


Fast Facts: Regional Cooperation for Improved Financial Resilience and Liquidity Support - A Decade On and the Challenges Ahead

ASEAN+3 launched the Asian Bond Markets Initiative in 2002 to improve the resilience of the financial system. This year we celebrate 10 years.


Fast Facts: ASEAN Infrastructure Fund

By establishing the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, ASEAN would be taking a major step towards investing more if its resources in its own development needs.


Fast Facts: ASEAN, the PRC and India - The Great Transformation?

A new ADB-ADBI publication looks at how the economies of ASEAN, People’s Republic of China and India might fare by 2030.