GMS leaders vow greater cooperation
Hanoi (VNA) – Leaders of the nations in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) delivered their commitments to stronger subregional cooperation at the plenary session of the sixth GMS Summit in Hanoi on March 31.
Right after the opening speech of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen highly valued the GMS 25-year cooperation, with numerous achievements in enhancing the region’s competitiveness and building a community of prosperity, peace, and solidarity.
[Sixth Greater Mekong Subregion Summit a success]
The GMS cooperation has supported its members
in achieving the millennium development goals, particularly promoting the
inclusive and sustainable development and addressing challenges such as water
shortage, poor infrastructure and global economic instability.
He suggested the GMS members nations connect
with each other more effectively via investment in infrastructure, energy and
transport, and agreements on transport facilitation and economic special zones
along their borderlines, thus contributing more comprehensively to the regional
economy.
The GMS countries need to increase regional
technology transfer in building physical and digital infrastructure, thus
facilitating investment, free trade and tourism, while promoting regional
comprehensive and inclusive development via effectively implementing the GMS’s
programmes for a region of integration, peace, prosperity and stability.
State Counsellor of China Wang Yi underlined
the cooperation among the six GMS nations over the past 25 years, saying that
they share mutual benefits and thus have the responsibility for boosting prosperous
development, regional cooperation, and economic growth.
He suggested the GMS nations create new
opportunities for development, increase value chain, financial support and
cooperation among border areas and industrial parks, while working more closely
together to reach common prosperity.
Congratulating the GMS nations on their achievements in
implementing the subregion’s action plans and cooperation agreements, Lao Prime
Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said Laos pledges and give priorities to
establishing a cross-border transport network and an one-stop mechanism in
border areas, as well as boosting cooperation in all economic fields,
particularly in the subregion’s economic corridors.
The GMS nations need to fully tap their
potential via joint development projects, while luring financial resources and
ensuring green growth and common prosperity for the whole subregion, the Lao PM
said.
He also called on the six nations to increase
technology transfer, narrow the development gaps among them, enhance their
competitiveness, and boost public-private-partnership as well as business
cooperation.
Vice President of Myanmar U Henry Van Thio welcomed the Hanoi Action Plan
2018-2022 as well as the Regional Investment Framework 2022 and the GMS
sectoral cooperation strategies.
He called on the GMS
countries to ensure financial resources to implement projects, focusing on
inspecting their progress annually.
GMS is a mechanism that looks toward action to
make itself a better region. To achieve this, the member countries need
specific action plans to strengthen multinational cooperation, he said.
Thailand’s Prime Minister
Prayut Chan-o-cha hoped the GMS countries will enhance cooperation and
develop hi-tech human resources to meet the requirements of the fourth Industrial
Revolution as well as promote regional connectivity.
The GMS nations should
strongly engage in global supply chain, back small-and-medium-sized
enterprises, and increase people-to-people exchanges to build a sustainable subregion,
he said.
At the session, the
GMS leaders reviewed and ratified three key documents, namely the Joint Statement
of the GMS-6, the Hanoi Action Plan 2018 – 2022, and the Regional Investment
Framework 2022.-VNA