REPORT OF THE 13th IMT-GT STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING 5 – 7 FEBRUARY 2020 BANGKOK, THAILAND INTRODUCTION 1. The 13th IMT-GT Strategic Planning Meeting (SPM) was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 5-7 February 2020. The Meeting was attended by IMT-GT National Secretariats (NSs), Centre of IMT-GT Sub-Regional Cooperation (CIMT), representatives of the Sectoral Working Groups (WGs), Chief Minister and Governor Forum (CMGF) and Joint Business Council (JBC). The IMT-GT Senior Officials meeting was held on 7 February 2020. The full list of delegation appears as Annex I. AGENDA 1: WELCOMING REMARKS BY THE HOST 2. Hon. Mr. Danucha Pichayanan, Deputy Secretary General Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), Chair of the 13th IMT-GT Strategic Planning Meeting welcomed all delegation to Bangkok. He expressed his commitment to work hand- in-hand with all IMT-GT entities to reach the maximum achievement. The mid-term review 2017-2021 is one of the vital issues to be emphasized during the SPM as directed by the Leaders and Ministers. To fulfil the directives, the 13th SPM is very timely to provide opportunity for IMT-GT Working Groups, Sub Working Groups, JBC and UNINET to discuss and review the Implementation Blueprint and to plan the new action ahead. He reiterated that Leaders and Ministers underscored several important issues, including; completion of PCP projects, finalisation of Framework of Cooperation on CIQ, strengthening rubber cities and the establishment of Working Group on Environment. In response to sustainability and climate change, IMT-GT is encouraged to realise the establishment of Working Group on Environment. He requested all member countries to identify and assign ministries/institutions to take the role in the working group. 3. Mrs. Netty Muharni, Assistant Deputy Minister for Regional and Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, National Secretariat of Indonesia expressed her gratitude to NESDC and Kingdom of Thailand for the warm hospitality and appreciation to CIMT for preparing all needed documents to be discussed during the SPM. She highlighted President of Indonesia’s statement in the 12th IMT-GT Summit, that IMT-GT Cooperation has contributed in developing economic in the subregion. However, the collaboration needs to be advanced by developing the subregion’s main strength in palm oil, rubber, cruise, and halal sectors. She highlighted the importance of local governments and Page | 1 private sector in the cooperation and tasked Working Groups (WG) and Sub-Working Groups (SWG) to utilize the meeting to develop projects for the benefit of wider community. She mentioned several pending matters that need to be expedited such as Framework of Cooperation on CIQ, and operationalisation of RoRo Dumai Melaka. She highlighted the needs for the Focus Group on Environment to be upgraded to Working Group level. She also stated on the necessity of Midterm Review to ensure that IB is still relevant and respond to current challenging issues of global economy. 4. Dr. Suhana bt. Md. Saleh, Director of Strategic Planning and International Cooperation Division, Ministry of Economic Affairs, National Secretariat of Malaysia, conveyed her appreciation to NESDC as the host for the 13th SPM. She conveyed the importance of SPM to accelerate the implementation of the programmes/projects and to review the achievement of each of focus areas in the sub-regional cooperation. She emphasised on the need to all sectors to improve its role, coordinate and implement the programme/projects to achieve IMT-GT Vision 2036. Leaders and Ministers through the Summit and Ministerial Meetings have tasked Senior Officials to set the clear target for sub-regional cooperation. She highlighted on the review of Implementation Blueprint 2017-2021 (IB2017-2021), maximisation of the utilisation of the MoU signed under the sub-regional cooperation to promote trade and digital literacy that act as enabler to accelerate the development in subregion. She hoped that the WGs take full advantage on the SPM and looked forward to the delivery of the programmes/projects created. 5. Mr. Firdaus Dahlan, Director of Centre for IMT-GT Subregional Cooperation (CIMT) welcomed all delegates to the meeting and expressed his appreciation to NESDC for hosting the meeting and kind hospitality extended to all delegation. He stated three main objectives of the 13th SPM as follows: (i) update on the progress of projects; (ii) discuss on potential new project proposal; and (iii) formulate new cooperation in the spirit to accelerate the IB2017-2021. He reported that 13th SPM recorded big participations from member countries with 120 participants registered from Thailand, 47 participants from Indonesia and 20 participants from Malaysia. During the meeting, WGs, SWGs and all participants are expected. He reported that under the Implementation Blueprint 2017-2021, there are 57% ongoing projects, 20% completed and 23% delisted. Coming to near end of IB2017-2021 in 2021, he hoped with the strong commitment of member countries, IMT-GT may achieve the target. Outcome: The meeting took note of the remarks by member states, and expressed appreciation and support to all stakeholders including WGs, CMGF, JBC, and UNINET to accelerate the implementation of programmes / projects toward the targets of IB 2017 – 2021. Page | 2 AGENDA 2: BRIEFING ON THE 13TH IMT-GT SPM 6. Mr. Firdaus Dahlan, CIMT Director, briefed the Meeting on the objectives of 13th IMT-GT Strategic Planning Meeting and the plan of two-day breakout session for WGs, SWGs, JBC and CMGF as well as the convergence meetings in the second day. The presentation appears as Annex II. 7. In response to the presentation, the Meeting took note of the following comments and suggestions: a) Hon. Mr. Danucha Pichayanan mentioned to utilize SPM in identifying the obstacles that hinder the projects/programmes under IB2017-2021 and finding the solutions for better execution. b) Mrs. Netty emphasized on the need of WGs to assure the action plans are aligned to expedite the implementation of IB2017-2021. WGs also need to revisit the mechanism on proposing new projects/programmes and assure that the proposal agreed to be translated into a concrete programme. She also highlighted the importance of WGs and SWGs to synergise their plans to support the Economic Corridor. c) Dr. Suhana commented that the convergence meetings need to have clear instructions to facilitate the discussion among working groups. CIMT is tasked to give clear timeline and to look into the convergence meeting topics to cover the cross- cutting issues. Outcome: The meeting took note of the presentation of the Director of CIMT on the objectives and expectation of SPM. It was requested that all stakeholders to take advantage of the meeting, identify obstacles faced in the implementation of projects/programmes, and encourage them to find out ways for better execution. The meeting encouraged stakeholders to conduct more convergence meeting on crossed-cutting issues for better coordination and impact of the projects / programmes’ completion to the economic development in the subregion. The meeting also requested CIMT to set timeline and look into crossed-cutting issues of the convergence meetings. Page | 3 AGENDA 3: OVERVIEW OF THE IMT-GT IMPLEMENTATION BLUEPRINT 2017-2021 (IB2017- 2021) MID-TERM REVIEW (MTR) 8. Mr. Firdaus Dahlan, CIMT Director, explained that Mid-term Review of IB2017-2021 is one of the leaders' directive at the 12th IMT-GT Summit in 2019, in Bangkok, Thailand. The result of the review is necessary to seek new development opportunities as well as to respond to the emerging challenges, and to review the relevancy of the IB with the current situation. CIMT as the secretariat for IMT-GT has conducted in-house review in response to the directive. 9. Ms. Wariya Pisuchpen, CIMT Deputy Director, briefed the meeting on the current scenario of IB implementation and initial findings. The current projects/programmes listed under IB2017-2021 are 107 in total. CIMT has prepared template and questions related to the strategies of focus area, project-fit, implementation status and issues/challenges faced by WGs and SWGs in implementing IB2017-2021. CIMT requested the WGs and SWGs to complete the template prepared and submit the feedback at the end of day 2 of the SPM. CIMT summarised the comments and inputs from the WGs and SWGs and presented it on the third day of SPM. The presentation appears as Annex III. 10. In response to the presentation, the Meeting took note of the following comments and suggestions: a) Hon. Mr. Danucha Pichayanan encouraged WGs and SWGs to provide the updated data and information with regards to the review of IB 2017 – 2020 as well as to provide possible solutions that hinder the implementation. b) Dr. Suhana highlighted the importance to set up Project Monitoring System that may link the projects to CIMT directly, to ease the monitoring system, for instance the application of online system to replace the offline template which is currently used. Malaysia also urged WGs and SWGs to not only proposing new projects but also maintaining the sustainability and continuity of projects proposed in the previous meeting. The subregional-based projects were encouraged to be conducted more, in the response of CIMT’s finding that many projects submitted were national-based projects. c) Mrs Netty suggested to incorporate the report of Asian Development Bank Study on the “Review of the existing five IMT-GT economic corridors”, and the “Study on Collaborative approach to SEZ development and cooperation in IMT-GT and BIMP- Page | 4 EAGA” into Midterm Review of IB2017-2021. A clearer guidelines to conduct review is needed, in order to guide the WGs and SWGs in reviewing their projects/programmes. Outcome: The meeting took note of the presentation of the Director of CIMT on the overview of IMT-GT Implementation Blueprint (IB) 2017 – 2021 Mid-term-review (MTR) and initial findings on the current status projects / programmes.