MANILA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Regional economic cooperation and integration remain strong in Asia and the Pacific, providing a buffer against the effects of global trade tensions, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released on Wednesday said.
The report titled "Asian Economic Integration Report 2019/2020: Demographic Change, Productivity, and the Role of Technology" says the latest Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation and Integration Index shows infrastructure and connectivity made the largest advance but overall regional integration fell nonetheless due to a drop in the money and finance measure.
The report reviews Asia and the Pacific's progress in regional cooperation and integration.
"Latest estimates of the Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation and Integration Index based on 2017 data show a broadly steady pace of Asian integration," the report says.
The report adds that the index declined slightly in 2017, driven by a smaller contribution from the money and finance dimension.
"This was partly offset by increases in infrastructure and connectivity, the movement of people, and institutional and social integration dimensions," says the report.
By subregion, the report says that East Asia remains the most regionally integrated while Central Asia the least.
Relative to other regions globally, it says Asia came second to the European Union (EU) in overall integration but stayed even with the EU in terms of trade and investment integration.
The report also said that Asia and the Pacific's trade is expected to decelerate further in 2019 amid slowing global economic growth.
Moreover, the report says the region's share of intraregional trade by value remained a robust 57.5 percent of global trade in 2018, up from the average of 56.3 percent in 2012 to 2017.
"Asia's inward and outward foreign direct investment grew in 2018, while remittance inflows hit a record 302.1 billion U.S. dollars last year," the report says.
The Manila-based ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
