The World Bank In East Asia Pacific

East Asia and Pacific (EAP) is among the fastest-growing and most dynamic regions in the world. With its growing economies, vast populations, and carbon intensity, the region is critical to addressing global challenges, including creating more and better jobs, building resilience to changing weather patterns and natural disasters, strengthening human capital, and tackling pandemics.

Over the past two decades, EAP achieved strong and stable growth, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and transforming economies and lives. Many of the region’s countries have risen to upper-middle-income status and are reaching for high-income status in the near to medium term.

Amid growing global uncertainty, the World Bank projects that growth in EAP will slow to 4.0 percent in 2025, down from 5.0 percent in 2024. Growth prospects for countries in the region in 2025 are as follows: China at 4.0 percent; Cambodia at 4.0 percent; Indonesia at 4.7 percent; Malaysia at 3.9 percent; Mongolia at 6.3 percent; Lao PDR at 3.5 percent; the Philippines at 5.3 percent; Thailand at 1.6 percent; and Viet Nam at 5.8 percent. Growth in the Pacific Island countries is projected at 2.5 percent.  

Poverty rates continue to decline, with 24 million people in the region projected to escape poverty between 2024 and 2025 (based on the upper-middle-income poverty line).

Despite progress, the region continues to face challenges. With about 320 million people reaching working age over the next decade and only about 110 million new jobs projected to be added, the need to create more and better jobs across the region has never been more urgent. Widening inequality within and across countries is also of concern, calling for increased efforts to expand access to education, health care, and social safety nets, particularly for the urban poor and rural communities. Other challenges include aging populations, rising chronic diseases and increasing health costs and the need for comprehensive and affordable care.

Rapid urbanization highlights the need for robust social protection systems, transport connectivity, water and sanitation infrastructure, and pollution management. Meeting growing electricity needs at a reasonable price and without massively increasing the region’s greenhouse gas footprint is also a major challenge. Adaptation and resilience to extreme weather and natural disasters is critical for a region that includes 13 of the world’s 30 most climate-vulnerable countries. EAP also experiences 70 percent of the world’s natural disasters, which have affected more than 1.6 billion people since 2000. Pacific Island countries, where rising sea levels are threatening coastal areas and atoll islands, have been hit hard by natural disasters.

Last updated: April 2025

The World Bank supports EAP’s priorities, including i) promoting economic growth and job creation; ii) building human capital and strengthening pandemic preparedness; and iii) strengthening resilience and sustainability by addressing climate risks, advancing sustainable energy transition and enhancing water and agriculture systems. In fiscal year 2024, the Bank approved $8.0 billion for 37 operations in the region, including $6.8 billion in IBRD commitments and $1.2 billion in IDA commitments. Of this total, $4.4 billion went to climate financing, representing 54 percent of all financing to the region.

Aligned with the World Bank Group Strategy for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence, the Bank remains engaged in Myanmar by monitoring and assessing the situation and assisting the most vulnerable people through a trust-funded community operation. The Bank continues to deepen its partnerships with nonborrowing member countries, including the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore, to exchange development lessons and solutions for shared priorities.

With co-located offices in a majority of countries, EAP is working toward building a stronger One World Bank group presence by piloting joint representation of IBRD/IDA, IFC, and MIGA in four countries.

Promoting long-term economic growth and job creation

The World Bank supports countries’ efforts to expand opportunities, promote sustainable growth, and create jobs. It partners with governments and other stakeholders to shape policies, enable innovation, finance investments, and catalyze private capital to drive job creation.

Through knowledge and data, the Bank helps identify obstacles to private sector growth and investment. For example, the recently launched Country Growth and Jobs Reports for the Philippines and Indonesia provide policy recommendations. In the Philippines, Bank support is strengthening financial sector stability, expanding financial inclusion, and spurring job creation. In Cambodia, it is helping expand growth through creating a more competitive private sector environment and increasing fiscal, social, and environmental resilience. Projects in Indonesia and Fiji are boosting tourism and creating new job opportunities. The Bank is also promoting digitalization to improve public services and increase productivity. In Kiribati, Lao PDR, the Marshall Islands, and Mongolia digitalization is improving public services and increasing productivity.

Building human capital and strengthening pandemic preparedness

Investing in human capital helps ensure long-term sustainable growth and reduce poverty. Through a flagship $1 billion program, the World Bank is supporting Indonesia’s efforts to improve nutrition and prevent stunting in the early years of life. It is also partnering with other institutions to co-finance the world’s largest health transformation project to help Indonesia expand equitable healthcare access and improve health outcomes. In Lao PDR, Bank support is helping improve child health, nutrition, and food security by enhancing social assistance and livelihood options, childcare, and access to health services and clean water. In Viet Nam, it is supporting efforts to strengthen the linkages between university research and market demand and in Cambodia, it promotes reforms to strengthen schools, learning facilities, and teacher capacity.

Building resilience and sustainability

The World Bank works with countries to strengthen resilience, reduce pollution, support climate-smart agriculture, and transition to clean and renewable energy. It has rapidly expanded support in the Pacific, where countries are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and economic shocks because of their geography, remoteness, and limited economic opportunities. In Papua New Guinea, where the roads are vulnerable to natural disasters, support from the Bank is helping improve the resilience and sustainability of the road network, an effort that should help diversify the economy, decentralize service delivery, and promote social inclusion. In Indonesia, efforts are enhancing the resilience of coastal ecosystems and communities by restoring and conserving mangroves. The Bank has launched a regional effort to accelerate sustainable energy transition to reduce emissions and expand electricity access.

The World Bank’s Country Climate and Development Reports offer evidence-based proposals for addressing changing weather patterns in line with countries’ development goals. In the Philippines, the report finds that the country has many of the tools required to reduce damages substantially. In Viet Nam, the report suggests that with the right mix of policies and strategies, the country can meet growth and development goals while achieving net zero emissions. In the Pacific, the report proposes investments for protecting islands from sea-level rise, safeguarding water and energy supplies, and building the resilience and mobility of citizens.

Last updated: April 2025

People

World Bank support has helped EAP countries strengthen human capital and deliver health, education and social benefits. Aligned with the World Bank’s goal to deliver affordable quality healthcare to 1.5 billion people by 2030, support helped 142 million people access-quality health, nutrition, and population services, including strengthening food and nutrition security for almost 21 million people in the region. More than 18 million people benefited from social safety net programs, and 17 million received better education.

In Indonesia, comprehensive support to health system transformation is supporting the country’s journey to ensure better health and nutrition for its citizens. This includes the US$1 billion Investing in Nutrition and Early Years program (INEY 1 and INEY2) and the Indonesia Health Systems Strengthening Project which aims to increase the availability of medical equipment in public health facilities and improve health services across the country.

In Viet Nam, private capital has brought clean drinking water to schools and communities. Thanks to an Emission Reduction-Linked Bond issued by the Bank, a local company manufactured and distributed 300,000 free, easy-to-use water purifiers to 8,000 schools and other community institutions across the country that will provide clean drinking water to up to 2 million children. The project is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 6 million tons over the next decade.

In Cambodia, Bank-supported reforms improved education quality for half a million students through enhanced school operations, learning facilities, and teacher capacity.

Prosperity

The Bank is supporting efforts to expand opportunities, strengthen financial inclusion and create jobs by partnering with governments to shape policies, enable innovation, finance investments, and catalyze private capital. As of end FY24, World Bank support assisted more than 36 million people and businesses in EAP to access financial services. About 19.5 million people, including women and youth, are benefitting from actions to expand economic opportunities.

Through knowledge and data, the Bank helping identify obstacles to private sector growth and investment. For example, the Country Growth and Jobs Reports being prepared in the Philippines and Indonesia provide policy recommendations for addressing constraints to job creation. In Indonesia, the analysis shows that job quality is an issue; in the Philippines, the report finds that further gains can be achieved with reforms to sustain spatial convergence, unlock productivity, improve resource allocation, and reverse the economy’s inward shift. The World Bank’s Development Policy Lending has also been crucial for creating jobs. For example, the Philippines promoted reforms to open infrastructure services to foreign investment which could increase productivity by 3.2 percent and boost job creation. Indonesia attracted private investment and reformed trade policy, increasing foreign direct investment by 23 percent in liberalized sectors—moves that could create 3.2 million new jobs by 2026.

A Bank-supported investment in tourism infrastructure in Fiji is expected to benefit at least 60,000 inhabitants of Vanua Levu Island by creating jobs. The Bank is also supporting projects that increase women’s participation in the labor market—supporting women entrepreneurs in Lao PDR, boosting women’s participation in water utilities in Cambodia, and strengthening community-led healthcare through women’s leadership in Samoa is fostering gender equality and transforming lives. In the Pacific Islands, the Bank works to ensure that countries such as Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu stay connected to the global financial system to ensure the continuity of remittance flows, which are a vital source of income for many Pacific Islanders.

Planet

The World Bank supports efforts to build resilience, strengthen food and water security, support forestry, and prevent biodiversity loss and soil degradation across the region. As of end FY24, Bank support helped provide water, sanitation, and/or hygiene to 15 million people across the region and enhanced resilience to climate risks for almost 13 million people.

With the Community Resilience to Climate and Disaster Risk in the Solomon Islands Project, the Bank worked with the government to deliver multi-hazard early warning systems and community infrastructure assistance. Projects provided improved access to safe drinking water, created resilient multipurpose buildings, improved footbridges, and increased shoreline protection, benefitting almost 70,000 people.

Through innovative financial instruments, the World Bank provides a rapid source of financing to respond to natural disasters and health emergencies. Countries in the Pacific are strengthening resilience to natural disasters and health emergencies through Development Policy Operations or Development Policy Financing with Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Options (Cat-DDOs). The Philippines became the first country to adopt the Rapid Response Option in the World Bank Group’s new Crisis Preparedness and Response Toolkit to strengthen financial capacity to respond to disasters. The Bank also deployed this option to Vanuatu in the wake of the December 2024 earthquake, unlocking $12 million in crisis support within days of the disaster.

Infrastructure

The World Bank helps EAP countries build smart infrastructure that supports inclusive and sustainable growth, expands markets, creates jobs, promotes competition, and contributes to a cleaner future. As of the end of FY24, around 40 million people across EAP were benefiting from Bank-supported efforts to expand transport infrastructure and services. This support helped provide more than 13 million people with access to electricity and enabled 2.55 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity.

The World Bank has launched a regional $2.5 billion Accelerating Sustainable Energy Transition Program which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 million tons while providing over 20 million people in the region with new or improved access to clean electricity. The program will add 2.5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity—equivalent to 50 utility-scale solar farms or more than 1,000 wind turbines. Projects in the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands are ongoing, with others in the pipeline.

The Vanuatu Infrastructure Reconstruction and Investment Program reconstructed or repaired 50 kilometers of roads and rebuilt 40 schools and 26 public facilities, increasing their resilience to disasters. More than 28,000 people benefited from road improvements, and nearly 5,000 students enjoyed safer school facilities. In Indonesia, the National Slum Upgrading Project improved public services to 8.6 million people by rehabilitating tens of thousands of houses; thousands of kilometers of roads; and several bridges, drainage systems, and solid waste facilities. Samoa's entire population of 226,000 people is benefiting from enhanced access to transport services through Bank–supported projects implemented between 2013 and 2022. In Viet Nam, another project helped increase energy transmission capacity by 15 percent and enhanced the efficiency and reliability of electricity transmission in the Greater Hanoi and Greater Ho Chi Minh City areas.

Digital

The World Bank provides knowledge and financing to help close the global digital divide and help countries take full advantage of the digital development revolution. As of the end of FY24, 54 million people across the region were using digitally enabled services, and 1.5 million people had access to broadband internet.

In Malaysia, a World Bank analysis of digital connectivity, digital entrepreneurship, and taxation of digital platforms led to telecommunications regulatory reforms that slashed the costs of fixed broadband in half and doubled the speed of internet connections. The Philippines First Digital Transformation Development Policy Loan is promoting the digital transformation by helping digitalize government operations and service delivery, foster competition in digital infrastructure markets, and encourage the adoption of digital payments and financial services.

Last updated: April 2025

To maximize impact, the World Bank Group partners with many institutions, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Pacific Island Forum, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIDB), the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). The Bank has also expanded partnerships with non-borrower member countries through its Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore offices, which generate and share development knowledge, lessons, and solutions with countries in the region and across the globe.

Last updated: April 2025