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MANILA, PHILIPPINES - ADB today launched the Asia Regional Integration Center (ARIC) website, a knowledge and information portal which facilitates the tracking of progress in the region’s accelerating economic cooperation and integration.

The new ARIC website supports the Asia and Pacific region’s efforts to promote regional cooperation and integration. ARIC is structured on four basic strategic pillars of ADB’s recently approved regional cooperation and integration (RCI) strategy: (i) cross-border infrastructure and associated software; (ii) trade and investment; (iii) money and finance; and (iv) regional public goods (such as prevention of communicable diseases and environmental degradation).

“ADB is proud to be a trusted partner in this endeavor to build a more integrated, poverty-free, prosperous and peaceful Asia and Pacific,” ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said. “The ARIC website is a valuable tool for monitoring progress and understanding ongoing and planned regional initiatives.”

ARIC provides an array of resources on RCI:

• RCI programs and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region,
• a set of integration indicators to monitor progress in RCI,
• a comprehensive database to track free trade agreements (FTAs) involving countries in the region,
• links to economic news, opinions and editorials, studies and research, and
• ADB working papers on regional economic integration.

ARIC’s vast trove of information makes it a vital source for a wide variety of users, from major government and international agencies to the corporate sector, civil society groups, think-tanks, academic researchers and policy analysts, journalists, and economic commentators.

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