This series features the scholarly works under the Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management, a region-wide capacity building program of the Asian Development Bank that supports knowledge products and services.

The establishment of cross-border economic zones in the border areas of the People's Republic of China and its neighboring countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion has recently emerged as a strategy for further promoting trade and investments in the subregion. Unlike a border economic zone (BEZ), which is confined within the national territory, a CBEZ is an economic zone traversing a transnational area and requiring a unified set of policies and incentives in such areas as finance, taxation, investment, trade, and customs regulation.

Using the case study of Viet Nam to draw implications for GMS cooperation, this paper investigates how users and providers of financial services in the border-gate areas see financial services as a factor of cross-border trade facilitation. It also examines how users and providers of financial services perceive the different dimensions of financial service accessibility and how accessibility affects customers' decisions to use financial services in the border-gate areas.

This paper presents the variations and implications of contract farming arrangements in three case studies - cabbage, maize, and sugarcane - in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Border-gate economic zones (BEZs) are symbols of the increased cross-border exchange and the development initiative of the border areas in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Over the past decade, BEZs have been able to attract a great number of women workers seeking new job opportunities.

The Cross-Border Transport Facilitation Agreement (CBTA) is a flagship initiative under the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program to promote transport and trade facilitation.