16th GMS Ministerial Meeting to identify strategic guidance for next decade

VGP – Ministers from the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries and the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) representatives will meet in Hà Nội on August 20 to identify broad directions and key elements for the next GSM long-term strategic framework (2012-2022).

August 02, 2010 4:42 PM GMT+7

Participants to the event are expected to finalize and endorse a plan of actions for improved transport and trade facilitation in the GMS; and take up other major issues, concerns, and plans in various GSM sectors of cooperation.

The Report of the Chair of the Senior Officials’ Meeting, Report of the GMS Business Forum, Report of the Chair of the Development Partners Meeting, and a Joint Statement are the expected outcomes of the meeting.

GMS countries include Việt Nam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and China.

Since 1992, the countries engaged in a program on comprehensive economic cooperation in transport, energy, telecommunication, human resource development, environment, natural resources management, trade facilitation, private investment, tourism and agriculture with support from the ADB and other partners.

Just the past decade, GMS countries shifted from conflict to economic cooperation and gained outstanding achievements in poverty reduction, said Mr. Kunio Senga, Director General of the ADB South Asia Regional Department.

He hoped that the “second-generation” initiatives on infrastructure connectivity will be introduced to spur the regional cooperation.

By Hải Minh