Prime Minister to attend 4th Mekong River Commission Summit

The MRC is an intergovernmental organization for regional dialogue and cooperation in the Lower Mekong River Basin, established in 1995 based on the Mekong Agreement between Cambodia, Lasos, Thailand and Viet Nam.

The organization serves as a regional platform for water diplomacy and a knowledge hub of water resources management for the sustainable development of the region.

The MRC Summit is the highest level political event in the MRC calendar occurring every four years. It gathers the heads of governments of the four member countries and political leaders from Dialogue Partners and development partners to review Mekong cooperation and provide strategic directions.

Attached to the Summit is the MRC International Conference, which attracts a range of global and regional experts in the fields of water and related resources (energy, food, transport), transboundary rivers, river basin management, governance and development to present and discuss the latest knowledge and innovative solutions for the Mekong and other basins.

The Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia. The river has a length of approximately 4,900 km, flowing from its source on the Tibetan Plateau in China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam via a large delta into the sea. The river basin drains a total land area of 795,000 km² and has a mean annual discharge of 475 km³ , the tenth largest in the world.

The Mekong River Basin includes seven broad regions with diverse topography, drainage patterns and geomorphology. The basin is commonly divided into the Upper and Lower Mekong River Basin. The Upper Mekong River Basin comprises the Tibetan Plateau, the Three Rivers Area and Lancang Basin in China and Myanmar. The Lower Mekong River Basin is made up of the Northern Highlands, the Khorat Plateau, the Tonle Sap Basin and the Mekong Delta. It covers Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Viet Nam./.