Mekong Countries Adopt New-Decade Strategy

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 30, 2001

Mekong Countries Adopt New-Decade Strategy

Ministers of six countries bordering the Mekong River -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam -- Thursday adopted a new strategy for the next ten years to strengthen regional cooperation, according to a news release of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Under the new strategy, the countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) will cooperate further to realize the potential of the subregion through the enabling policy environment and effective infrastructure linkages that will facilitate cross-border trade, investment, tourism and other forms of economic cooperation, and developing human resources and skills competences, the news release said at the end of the one-day 10th Ministerial Conference on GMS Economic Cooperation.

The strategy also called for GMS efforts to ensure that development process is equitable and sustainable, and environment and social interests will be fully respected in the formulation and implementation of the GMS program.

The ministers agreed to strengthen their national institutional set-up to coordinate the implementation of the program, it said.

The news release disclosed that the strategy includes a detailed action plan for the next three years, involving ten flagship projects which require more than 900 million U.S. dollars in investment financing and 30 million dollars in technical assistance.

It added that the ADB will help the GMS program with resource mobilization by organizing a GMS donors coordination meeting and encouraging more private sector participation.

According to the news release, four of the six GMS countries --Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -- signed at the conference a landmark cross-border agreement to facilitate the flow of people and goods.

The agreement simplifies and harmonizes legislation, regulations and procedures relating to cross-border transport to facilitate speedy joint inspection.

The ministers emphasized that the agreement would be vital complement to free trade among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China, saying that it will maximize the benefit of major road projects linking north to south and west to east.

The GMS Economic Cooperation Program was initiated by the ADB in 1992 which has so far assisted ten projects with investment totaling about 2 billion dollars.

The ministerial conference was also attended by representatives of the ADB, U.N. agencies and donor countries including Japan.

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