In 1999, China and Mongolia -with the assistance of the Tumen Secretariat -applied to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for financial assistance with a project to identify the developemtn potential for economic cooperation between eastern Mongolia and adjacent areas of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The result was a strategic study with recommendations for development options for economic cooperation between eastern Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, completed in July 2001. ADB now plans to start another, bigger technical assistance project aimed at facilitating economic cooperation between the two countries. The new project, scheduled to commence in May 2002, is expected to make a valuable contribution to opening these remote and landlocked areas of China and Mongolia.