GMS values southern economic corridor
The statement was made by Cambodian Ministry of Trade Cham Prasidh at a
GMS conference on developing the southern economic corridor, which took
place in Phnom Penh on March 9-10. The conference was co-sponsored
by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Agency for
International Development.
Boosting goods exchanges
and development cooperation among localities and GMS countries is aimed
at promoting the southern economic corridor, which runs through 41
provinces of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, and Yunnan and
Guangxi provinces of China, he stressed.
Despite numerous progresses, there remains a big gap between this corridor and the East-West and North-South ones, he said.
According to the ADB, by the end of 2010, the bank had provided some
4.7 billion USD for 55 projects under the 11.5 billion USD GMS
development cooperation programme.
Australia
financed projects to develop the southern economic corridor with
regional countries, especially marine economic development in Cambodia
and Vietnam, with funding reaching 43.5 million USD.
Australia provided over 302 million USD for projects to upgrade
rural infrastructure as well as improve people’s living standards and
trade in GMS countries.
In 1992, with the ADB support,
GMS countries put forth a subregional economic cooperation programme to
strengthen their economic relations and cultural exchanges with nine
areas of priority, including agriculture, energy, environment, human
resource development, investment, telecommunication, tourism, transport
and trade.
GMS includes Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. /.