Participants hailed the progress of the plan with 103 adopted and underway projects worth close to US$ 26.64 million, or 19 out of 26 action lines in five priority fields of food and agriculture, trade promotion, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and education and health care.

Singapore was praised for funding the most projects with 72 out of 75 ones.

The IAI Work Plan continued to receive funding from partners such as Japan, India, China, the European Union and Germany. Japan was the top sponsor with six out of 28 projects valued at US$ 2.45 million.

The meeting approved six new projects in the areas of SMEs, capacity building in vocational training, improvement of the training capacity for medical staff, organisation of seminars on intellectual property rights, and building of IAI Work Plan for the 2021-2025 period.

To ensure the efficiency of activities and projects within the framework of IAI Work Plan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam were urged to step up collaboration among domestic agencies agencies and delegations to ASEAN.

IAI was adopted by ASEAN member states in 2020 with the purpose of narrowing development gap between regional countries, as well as help other members such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam boost their full integration into the regional economy.