Vietnam proactively raises initiatives within CLMV

Vietnam actively proposes and implements new ideas, contributing to building important documents, initiating and promoting projects, and providing development support for member countries, including the CLMV Scholarship Fund which provides 20 scholarships each year to students from CLMV countries to foster high-quality human resources training for the sub-region.

The country plays a coordinating role in several specialised cooperation areas, including human resources development, information technology and communications, trade, and investment. It has taken many practical activities to promote comprehensive cooperation among the CLMV countries, such as organising annual trade promotion fairs.

It also demonstrates its leading role in actively promoting cooperation among countries for the common development in the region, and deepening Mekong cooperation in a more substantive and effective direction.

Vietnam successfully hosted the 4th CLMV Summit in Hanoi in November 2008, and the 8th edition in Hanoi in October 2016.

At the 4th CLMV Summit, leaders of the member countries agreed on orientations to promote cooperation in trade and investment, transportation, agriculture, industry and energy, tourism, and human resources development. They also encouraged the engagement of the private sector and businesses from the four countries in the cooperation process.

They agreed to facilitate and promote investment and business collaboration among enterprises of the CLMV member countries in the fields of processing industries, mining, hydropower, infrastructure development, services, and logistics. The countries highly valued Vietnam’s initiative to establish the CLMV scholarship programme. The leaders approved a list of 58 CLMV cooperation projects and assigned senior officials to develop a list of priority projects for funding and a detailed implementation roadmap.

In the 8th CLMV Summit, leaders of the CLMV countries agreed to assign economic ministers to work closely with the ASEAN Secretariat and consulting units to develop the CLMV development framework and report it to senior leaders for approval. This document serves as a strategic orientation for economic cooperation among CLMV countries, which was developed for the first time since the inception of the CLMV cooperation mechanism.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s working visit to China from November 5 - 8 to attend the 8th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit, the 10th Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Summit, and the 11th CLMV Summit, and have bilateral activities in China holds a great significance, carrying a message that Vietnam always attaches importance and actively contributes to advancing cooperation mechanisms in the Mekong sub-region in general, and CLMV cooperation in particular.

According to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Thanh Binh, this series of events in China brings together representatives of all the countries along the Mekong River, which are also Vietnam's close neighbours with traditional friendship. This is an important opportunity for Vietnam to demonstrate its goodwill for cooperation in an open spirit, strengthen mutual understanding, and deepen the friendly neighbourliness between Vietnam and other CLMV member countries, as well as promote comprehensive cooperation in economics, trade, and investment./.