The Greater Mekong Subregional Cooperation (CLV 10) officially opened

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The meeting. Photo: Hoang Anh.

The meeting was co-chaired by the Vietnamese Delegation and the Asian Development Bank, with the participation of representatives from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. This is the preparation meeting for the 6th GMS Summit to be held in Hanoi on 31 March 2018.

The SOM GMS meeting focused on reviewing the preparation and finalization of the final draft documents to be submitted to the GMS Leaders. Accordingly, countries highly appreciated the coordination and preparation of Viet Nam. The conference also reviewed the content of the sectoral cooperation strategies on transport, tourism, agriculture and the environment, reporting on the results of the 25 years of GMS cooperation.

Speaking at the meeting, the Vietnamese delegation thanked the close cooperation and coordination of the GMS member countries with Vietnam, as well as the effective support of the Asian Development Bank for GMS LDC 6. In particular, high-ranking officials from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand highly appreciated the careful preparation of the content, logistics as well as initiatives of Vietnam, and expressed that the conference would be successful.

Expectedly, GMS 6 and CLV 10 attract more than 2,000 delegates, 200 corporations, domestic and foreign businesses, 150 press correspondents. 2,000 delegates including: Leaders of Greater Mekong Subregion countries; Representatives of international organizations such as the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Director General of the World Bank (WB), the Secretary-General of ASEAN, the Asian Bank for Investment and Development (AIIB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); representatives of development partners; representatives from the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS); and major corporations in the region and the world.

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is a natural economic area bound together by the Mekong River, covering 2.6 million square kilometers and a combined population of around 326 million. The GMS countries are Cambodia, the People's Republic of China (PRC, specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

With support from ADB and other donors, the GMS Program helps the implementation of high priority subregional projects in transport, energy, telecommunications, environment, human resource development, tourism, trade, private sector investment, and agriculture.

Substantial progress has been achieved in terms of implementing GMS projects since 1992. Priority infrastructure projects worth around $11 billion have either been completed or are being implemented. Among these are the upgrading of the Phnom Penh (Cambodia)-Ho Chi Minh City (Viet Nam) highway and the East-West Economic Corridor that will eventually extend from the Andaman Sea to Da Nang.

The subregion embraces flora and fauna that have expanded northward along the Malay Peninsula into Thailand, encroached upon the high mountains from the Himalayas, or advanced along the broad river valleys as dry deciduous forests similar to those of India. Ten million years of changing sea levels have left a rich legacy of unique life forms that have evolved in isolation on the Cardamom and Annamite mountains of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

These resources provide both income and sustenance to the great majority of people in the subregion who are leading subsistence or near subsistence agricultural lifestyles. The land yields timber, minerals, coal, and petroleum, while water from the many rivers supports agriculture and fisheries and provides energy in the form of hydropower. The coal reserves of the subregion are abundant, and the oil and gas reserves considerable. Most of these are in Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. These abundant energy resources are still relatively underused.

Increasingly, modernization and industrialization are emerging from a process of transition and transformation. The Mekong countries are gradually shifting from subsistence farming to more diversified economies, and to more open, market-based systems. In parallel with this are the growing commercial relations among the six Mekong countries, notably in terms of cross-border trade, investment, and labor mobility. Moreover, natural resources, particularly hydropower, are beginning to be developed and utilized on a subregional basis.

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The rich human and natural resource endowments of the Mekong region have made it a new frontier of Asian economic growth. Indeed, the Mekong region has the potential to be one of the world's fastest growing areas.