Elusive rural development and persistent poverty remain stumbling blocks in the ASEAN region’s development, with a large portion of the ASEAN Member States (AMS) total population in poverty, and suffering wealth disparity, and according to the human development index. While there was a substantial reduction in the percentage of the total population living in poverty in the 2015 to 2018 period, dropping between 15.2 percent (Lao PDR) to 23.4 percent (Myanmar), still the poverty incidence is as high as a fourth (24.8 percent) of the total population.

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