Regional : The Future of Regional Cooperation and Integration in Asia and the Pacific

Multisector / ADB's corporate management, policy and strategy development

This corporate TA will support the implementation of the ADB Strategy 2020 midterm review recommendations under a proposed RCI Operational Plan by producing operationally-relevant knowledge work to guide ADB's future operations in RCI.

More specifically, this TA is envisioned to produce knowledge products consisting of (i) one background paper on regionalism in Asia and the Pacific: emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges; (ii) a thematic paper on economic clusters and economic corridor development; (iii) a research report that consolidates the key findings and recommendations of the two knowledge products; and (iii) a synthesis paper summarizing the implications for ADB's operations in RCI.

Regionalism in Asia and the Pacific is often described as unique: market-driven, dynamic, open, multitrack, and multispeed, owing to different development patterns, economic circumstances, and geopolitical realities across the region. This model has served the region well, with RCI playing an increasingly important role in the region's economic development.

ADB has sought to take this process forward through a bottom-up approach built on support to subregional cooperation efforts, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), ASEAN+3 (ASEAN plus the People's Republic of China, Japan, and Republic of Korea); the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC); the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS); and the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC), with focus on cross border infrastructure and related software, trade and investment, monetary and financial cooperation, and regional public goods. These subregional cooperation efforts have progressed at different speeds and served as building blocks for an eventual broader and more unified regional architecture.

RCI initiatives that address the emerging challenges faced by ADB's DMCs are implemented

(ADB Strategy 2020)

1. Knowledge products on RCI produced

2. Research results disseminated

3. Synthesis paper on programmatic and operational implications produced

The TA will require approximately 29 person-months of international consulting services, 30 person-months of national consulting services, and 4.1 person-months of resource persons. All consultants will be selected and engaged individually by ADB in accordance with ADB''s Guidelines on the Use of Consultants (2013, as amended from time to time). For this TA, hiring a team of individual consultants will provide more benefits for ADB than engaging a firm because of the following reasons: (i) faster mobilization of consultants, (ii) greater control by ADB staff in selecting and managing individual consultants; and (iii) greater flexibility in engaging experts specializing in a broad spectrum of RCI-related topics.

Eleven international consultants will be engaged to prepare the background, thematic, and synthesis papers. An economics editor will also be engaged to help review and edit the knowledge products that will be produced under this TA. Six resource persons will be invited either to present or write background papers for regional workshops, or to serve as peer reviewers for the knowledge products that will be produced under this TA.

The TA will require five national consultants: one to assist in supervising and coordinating the TA activities and outputs, and four to provide research support. A typesetter will be sourced from ADB's Department of External Relations list of accredited service providers who will be responsible for graphics and design, typesetting, and page layout. Appendix 3 of the TA report provides the outline terms of reference for consultants.