East Coast Economic Region (ECER) (Malay: Wilayah Ekonomi Pantai Timur) is Government's initiative to accelerate economic growth and elevate income levels in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia - which covers states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and the north of Mersing district of Johor. ECER is also one of the three development regions in Peninsular Malaysia, other development regions being the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) (formerly known as South Johor Economic Region) and the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER). The ECER initiative will span for 12 years starting from 2007 spearheaded by, PETRONAS, a Malaysian-owned oil and gas company.

       ECER was launched by The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Kuala Terengganu and Kota Bahru on October 30, 2007 and in Kuantan the following day. During the launch of the project, the Prime Minister announced a RM 6 billion allocation for the opening phase of the project, strengthening the Malaysian government's commitment to the project.

       Therefore, this Regional conference 2008 (the 1st ECER Regional Academic Conference) will be the platform to achieve this initiative.  It also will be the biggest international conference conducted in the East Coast, particularly Kelantan, within the next few years.  This conference hopefully will bring together researchers, educators and practitioners from various international institutions to disseminate new ideas relevant to ECER.

       The theme of the conference which reflects the cutting-edge issues in the development of business and management, will link different disciplines related to the east coast economic region project.  The emerging issues from the conference of various disciplines hopefully, will further enhance the research areas of ECER development project.The objective of the conference is to bring together academicians, researchers, educators and practitioners from around the world to focus on timely regional issues and research area pertaining to in developing the ECER region.