The Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) initiative was launched in 1994 as a cooperation initiative by the four national governments to close the development gap across and within the EAGA member countries as well as across the ASEAN-6 member states.

BIMP-EAGA covers the entire sultanate of Brunei; the provinces of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and West Papua of Indonesia; the states of Sabah and Sarawak and federal territory of Labuan in Malaysia; and Mindanao region and the province of Palawan in the Philippines. The subregion covers a land area of 1.6 million square kilometers with an estimated population of more than 57 million.

The program

BIMP-EAGA cooperation aims to increase trade, tourism and investments with and outside the subregion by:

• Facilitating the free movement of people, goods, and services
• Making the best use of common infrastructure and natural resources
• Taking the fullest advantage of economic complementation

The BIMP-EAGA initiative is market-driven, and operates through a decentralized organization structure involving the four governments and the private sector.
Its goal is to accelerate economic development in focus areas which, although geographically distant from their national capitals, are in strategic proximity to each other, in one of the world's most resource-rich regions Heart of Borneo (HoB) and Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion (SSME).

Institutional arrangements

The principal mechanism for consultation between the participating countries is the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and the Ministers Meetings (MM) that meet at pre-agreed dates and venues. A national secretariat for each member country coordinates in-country and subregional activities.

For more information, visit the BIMP-EAGA website at http://www.bimp-eaga.org.

Read more about ADB Assistance.