The ESCAP Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia (ESCAP-ENEA) jointly organized the webinar with China International Development Research Network (CIDRN) and College of International Development and Global Agriculture, China Agricultural University (CAU-CIDGA). It is a spin-off of the annual North-East Asia Development Cooperation Forum which the Office has been organizing in partnership with research networks/associations in North-East Asian countries including CIDRN. The webinar was organized aiming to take stock of the bilateral development agencies in the North-East Asian countries on their responses to the pandemic.

Among others, China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) shared their experiences in providing medical supplies and technical support to combat the pandemic, and highlighted China’s commitment to provide international aid of US$2 billion over the next two years for countries affected by COVID-19. Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) shared their ABC programme for tackling COVID-19 (Agenda for Building resilience against COVID19 through development cooperation) which focuses on Action on fragility, Building capacity and Comprehensive cooperation.

Presidents of the research networks on development cooperation of China (CIDRN), Japan (JASID), Republic of Korea (KAIDEC), as well as the President of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies shared their views and insight, while the official from ADB shared information on ADB’s response to COVID-19 for their operations in China and Mongolia.