Malaysia
28 April 2015
President Benigno S. Aquino III joined other leaders for the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) held at the Langkawi International Convention Center (LICC) in Langkawi, Malaysia.
Joined by a four-nation government in conjunction with the 26th ASEAN Summit, the leaders discussed better ways to increase trade, investment and tourism in the sub-regions in Southeast Asia.
In the Philippines, the BIMP-EAGA plans to boost Mindanao’s position as an investment destination for ICT-BPO companies with the installation of a 5,092-kilometer cable system equipped with internet speeds of up to 2.4 terabytes per second capacity. The high bandwidth cable system will link the sub-regions to extend to Guam, United States of America, and the rest of the ASEAN countries. The project is targeted for completion on 2018.
Formed in March 1994, the BIMP-EAGA consists of the entire Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam; 10 provinces on the island of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Iran Jaya in Indonesia; the states of Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan in Malaysia; and, Palawan and Mindanao in the Philippines.
* * *