This book examines the scope, potential benefits, and challenges of digital platforms in Asia and the Pacific. It proposes measures and policies to help maximize social and economic gains while alleviating adverse effects. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is accelerating digital transformation across Asia and the Pacific. Digital platforms have become prominent intermediaries or marketplaces that allow the exchange of goods, services, and information. They are opening new transaction channels while lowering service costs and enhancing market efficiency. This volume explores topics that include trade and e-commerce, fintech payments, the digital divide, promoting competition, the digitalization of work and the role of universal basic income, and international taxation.

This book reviews progress with regional cooperation and integration in Asia and the Pacific and explores how it can be reshaped to achieve a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future. Consisting of papers contributed by renowned scholars and Asian Development Bank staff, the book covers four major areas: public goods, trade and investment, financial cooperation, and regional health cooperation. The book emphasizes how the region can better leverage regional integration to realize its vast potential as well as overcome challenges such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Multihazard Risk Atlas of Maldives is composed of Geography-Volume I, Climate and Geophysical Hazards-Volume II, Economy and Demographics-Volume III, Biodiversity-Volume IV, and Summary-Volume V. This atlas provides spatial information about Maldives and thematic maps necessary for assessing future development investments in terms of climate risks and geophysical hazards. It is also intended to support the formulation of cobeneficial options for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management. The five-volume atlas is a major output of the project "Establishing a National Geospatial Database for Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Development Activities and Policies in Maldives" under the Asian Development Bank's regional knowledge and support (capacity development) technical assistance Action on Climate Change in South Asia (2013-2018).