GMS deepens cooperation while faces challenges: blue paper

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BEIJING, Aug. 22 -- While cooperation in the Great Mekong Subregion (GMS) has been deepened, many challenges remain, according to a blue paper issued on Thursday.

GMS is a development project initiated by the Asian Development Bank in 1992 that brings together the fives states of the Mekong basin - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam - along with China's Yunnan Province, with a combined population of over 325 million.

The blue paper, published by the Social Sciences Academic Press, said that GMS cooperation has greatly improved the competitiveness of member countries and played an important role in integrating the regional economy.

Chinese projects in GMS are often subject to criticism and attacked for causing "environmental problems." Chinese enterprises mainly invest in fields such as agriculture, minerals and hydropower, which to some extent are prone to degrading the environment.

Chinese enterprises are losing confidence in investing in some GMS member countries through unwarranted and unexpected meddling with projects currently underway, including suspension of the Myitsone hydropower project in Myanmar and accusation surrounding the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project, according to the blue paper.

Political trust among the six parties is of great significance to enhance and promote economic cooperation, the blue paper said.

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