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This report shows how countries in the BIMSTEC subregion can work together to rebuild their pandemic-battered travel industries and create intraregional thematic tour packages to boost visitor numbers and support sustainable development.It lays out comprehensive action plans involving each member country-Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand-and highlights the potential of cross-border tourism circuits based on themes such as wildlife, trekking, or religion. It explains the potential to grow intraregional tourism, use public-private partnerships, and harmonize infrastructure, connectivity, and marketing to develop seamless travel between member countries and fast-track their economic recovery.

This report analyzes future energy market options for Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program members to help facilitate sustainable energy infrastructure investment.The report provides forecasts at individual country and regional levels. It aims to equip investors and policy makers with insights on regional trends to help identify potential investment opportunities that will improve energy services and reduce carbon emissions across CAREC countries. It includes energy supply and demand scenarios, assessments of innovative technologies, estimates of investment needs in the energy sector, and possible trajectories for carbon emissions.

This report summarizes insights on transparency and integrity in sustainable finance markets shared at a series of webinars hosted by the Asian Development Bank and State Street Global Advisors. The report provides an overview of policy and market practice to enhance transparency, integrity, and efficiency in sustainable finance and to foster the market's development. It discusses efforts to align taxonomies and standards; support transition finance; adapt to the trend toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments; and implement information disclosure and integrity requirements.

This publication examines beneficial ownership transparency in nine countries in Asia and the Pacific and explains how overcoming hurdles to ensure the full disclosure of company ownership is key to cracking down on crime and corruption. Focusing on countries including Armenia, Mongolia, and the Philippines, it offers a breakdown of relevant international standards and details challenges related to accurate data verification, collection, and disclosure. It highlights best practices, provides practical recommendations, and shows why a multipronged approach to cross-checking ownership information can help reduce money laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion, and other economic crimes.

This strategy outlines a regional approach for advancing gender equality and women's empowerment in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).The six GMS countries share common challenges and issues that prevent women from fully benefiting from economic opportunities. Many of these challenges have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy identifies strategic directions and key entry points to mainstream gender across all operational areas of the GMS Economic Cooperation Program. It has been designed to add value to the GMS Program Strategic Framework 2030 and to complement national initiatives of the GMS countries to bolster gender equality.

Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines need to bolster cooperation in their special economic zones (SEZ) to spur sustainable growth. This publication maps out and assesses the economic performance of SEZs across the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area. It highlights challenges they face including growing competition for foreign investment, international trade disputes, and digital transformation. The publication emphasizes the need for policy makers and stakeholders to intensify strategic collaboration to make their SEZs more competitive. Against the backdrop of COVID-19, it outlines practical steps to increase the role of SEZs in boosting trade, creating jobs, and building economic resilience across the four countries.

This report analyzes how Islamic finance can be scaled up to help build urgently-needed climate-resilient infrastructure in the Asia and Pacific region, and ensure its post-COVID-19 recovery is green, sustainable, and inclusive.It outlines how greening Islamic capital markets and social finance, mobilizing project finance for infrastructure and boosting financial inclusion, can play a key role in funding the climate agenda. It details the 14 ADB developing member countries with majority Muslim populations, assesses the growth of the nearly $3 trillion global Islamic finance market, and explores how its faith-based principles support the transition to a green agenda.

This publication provides an overview of institutional investors' interest in green bonds issued in Malaysia, along with an assessment of the perspectives of local arrangers and underwriters on their clients' interest in green bond issuances. It presents the results of a survey to help identify drivers, impediments, and development priorities for Malaysia's sustainable finance market. The findings and insights presented in this publication are intended to inform how the Asian Development Bank and other partners could further support the market's development.

Carbon pricing is an integral element of the climate policy architecture that can help countries reduce emissions cost-effectively, achieve climate targets articulated under their nationally determined contributions, and raise ambition over time. This study provides insights on how well-designed carbon pricing instruments can be woven into climate policies to accelerate efforts toward energy transition and decarbonization. Targeted at policymakers, it aims to help countries design and implement carbon pricing instruments tailored to their national circumstances and priorities that create low-cost, sustainable energy systems capable of boosting resilience and driving long-term growth.

Technology-based startup enterprises are an increasingly important part of the business landscape in Asia and the Pacific. By applying innovative technologies to create new products and services, they can make a significant contribution to economic development while generating social and environmental benefits. However, to survive and then thrive, tech startups require an enabling ecosystem that includes supportive government policy, adequate access to capital, skilled personnel, and quality digital infrastructure. This report assesses the current ecosystem for tech startups in Azerbaijan, specifically in Baku, Ganja, and Shamakhi, and examines the extent to which the ecosystem supports the growing number of startups. It provides recommendations on how the ecosystem can be strengthened.

A sharp increase in nonperforming loans (NPLs) could destabilize financial systems in Asia and the Pacific and compromise post-pandemic economic recovery. This report explains how trading distressed assets could help relieve pressure on banks to ensure they have the capacity to continue financial intermediation. It examines the feasibility of establishing an electronic marketplace to facilitate the trade of NPLs in the region. Designed to serve as a road map, it assesses the region's demand and readiness for an NPL platform, details the benefits it could offer, and explains how it could ultimately help countries improve their financial stability.

Drawing on evidence-based and expert-validated interventions, this guidance note lays out a comprehensive series of measures policy makers could weave into national agendas. These range from steps to bolster health guidelines and ramp up testing and contact tracing to strategies that can improve community engagement and prevent misinformation.

Motorcycles are a major component of road transport in Indonesia with more than 120 million estimated to be in use. While the number of motorcycles operating in the country has steadily grown in recent years, the proportion of electric motorcycles remains very low. A shift away from fossil-fuel-based motorcycles will provide considerable benefits for Indonesia by reducing air and noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and reliance on fuel imports. This report examines how such a shift can be achieved with a focus on electric motorcycle charging infrastructure. It draws on best practices from other economies to provide a road map and policy recommendations for developing this infrastructure.

ADB became a Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) supporter in November 2021 and this report represents ADB's first climate-related financial disclosures under the TCFD framework. This publication provides an overview of ADB's progress in implementing recommendations in the four thematic areas identified by the TCFD framework: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. It also presents proposed future actions to integrate climate-related risks and opportunities into the core of ADB's business strategy and decisions.