Leaders of four Southeast Asian countries met here on Thursday and reaffirmed the importance of establishing the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia- Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) as a food basket and ecotourism destination in the region.

The leaders reiterated the importance of sub-regional economic cooperation of BIMP-EAGA as a strategy in supporting the realization of the ASEAN Community, while recognizing the need to synergize to further improve economic development and also narrow the development gap within the BIMP-EAGA member countries.

According to statistics issued at the ninth BIMP-EAGA Summit, which ran parallel to the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday, total trade value of BIMP-EAGA grew by 70 percent to 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2009 to 170 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, while foreign direct investment flew into the sub-region grew by 129 percent from 24 billion U.S. dollars to 55 billion U.S. dollars.

The sub-region also registered a 31 percent increase in foreign and domestic arrivals, from 13 million in 2009 to 17 million in 2011.