Asia (excl. CIS)

PNG is well-endowed with natural resources and has an open economy with substantial exports and imports. In this framework, the agriculture sector plays a significant role by providing broad based income and employment to the vast majority of the population in the country, most of which still lives in the rural areas and engaged in subsistence and semi-commercial and commercial farming.

In recent years, PNG agriculture sector has faced many financial difficulties

The main problem areas identified for the second phase of RED2 are:

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MoALI) of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar was reconstituted in 2016 with the inclusion of 12 departments under its programme mandate for rural development and poverty reduction, including the Department of Rural Development (DRD).

The DRD is seeking cooperation of the EU in building capacity in the following three areas:

After the political opening in Myanmar, the economy has started to grow. But positive growths effects are uneven, especially outside the urban areas of Yangon and Mandalay, and business practices are not always sustainable.

Tourism has been identified by the Government of Myanmar as a priority growth sector, and has seen considerable growth since the inauguration of the civilian government in 2010. Tourism, not only in Myanmar, but especially in Shan State is accelerating fast.

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has received a loan from the Asian Development (ADB), and grants from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) to implement the Climate Resilient Rice Commercialization Sector Development Project (Rice-SDP).

The Asian Development Bank has approved 2 facilities in Sri Lanka to the non-banking financial sector for leasing activities and on-lending to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The ADB funding is being supported by technical assistance (TA), which will help the banks improve capacity to provide MSMEs with longer-term financing. The work will focus on:

(i) strengthening risk management and internal controls;