Mekong River Commission (MRC) membercountries have committed themselves to boosting cooperation in an effortto overcome urgent challenges emerging in the river basin.
The commitment was made by government leaders of Vietnam, Thailand,Laos and Cambodia at the first MRC Summit held in Thailand's seasideresort town Hua Hin on April 5.
At the summit, the leaders pledged to work together to reduce propertydamage, as well as injury and the loss of human life caused by floods.They also agreed to take sustainable development issues into accountwhen planning and implementing hydro-electric power plants and to ensuresufficient water resources for agriculture.
In addition, the leaders vowed to make preparations for dealing withclimate change, the impact of which, in terms of hunger and poverty,will most strongly affect vulnerable communities and to take measures toprevent the degradation of water quality and to manage aquaticresources more effectively.
It is the Mekong River basin’s dynamic and fast development that isposing increasing challenge on the region in the time to come, saidPrime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, while naming the depletion of naturalresources, including water, and environmental perils among thechallenges the region will face.
Regarding to the water resource issue, Dung proposed to hiscounterparts that the implementation of a strategy to develop the basinunder a principle of sharing water resources be sped up.
In his speech made at the summit, the PM urged the leaders to buildscenarios on climate change for the whole region and then formulate ajoint action plan to cope with the issue.
The PM spoke highly of China’s recent provision of more hydrologicalstatistics to help regional countries assess the river’s flow. He alsoexpressed the hope that China and Myanmar, the MRC’s dialogue partners,would become full members of the association.
With an emphasis on the role of the Mekong River to its socio-economicdevelopment, the PM said Vietnam would like developed countries tocontinue providing more financial and technical support, helping thecountry carry out projects in the fields stipulated in the developmentstrategy set by MRC for the period of 2011-2015.
Earlier, on April 2-3, an international conference on trans-boundarywater resource management took place. The conference drew theparticipation of over 300 delegates from the Mekong river basin, theother nine river basins, international organisations and water resourceexperts.
Participants at the event agreed that the protection as well asrational and equitable allocation of the Mekong River’s water resourcesis one of the factors affecting the socio-economic development of thewhole basin./.
The commitment was made by government leaders of Vietnam, Thailand,Laos and Cambodia at the first MRC Summit held in Thailand's seasideresort town Hua Hin on April 5.
At the summit, the leaders pledged to work together to reduce propertydamage, as well as injury and the loss of human life caused by floods.They also agreed to take sustainable development issues into accountwhen planning and implementing hydro-electric power plants and to ensuresufficient water resources for agriculture.
In addition, the leaders vowed to make preparations for dealing withclimate change, the impact of which, in terms of hunger and poverty,will most strongly affect vulnerable communities and to take measures toprevent the degradation of water quality and to manage aquaticresources more effectively.
It is the Mekong River basin’s dynamic and fast development that isposing increasing challenge on the region in the time to come, saidPrime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, while naming the depletion of naturalresources, including water, and environmental perils among thechallenges the region will face.
Regarding to the water resource issue, Dung proposed to hiscounterparts that the implementation of a strategy to develop the basinunder a principle of sharing water resources be sped up.
In his speech made at the summit, the PM urged the leaders to buildscenarios on climate change for the whole region and then formulate ajoint action plan to cope with the issue.
The PM spoke highly of China’s recent provision of more hydrologicalstatistics to help regional countries assess the river’s flow. He alsoexpressed the hope that China and Myanmar, the MRC’s dialogue partners,would become full members of the association.
With an emphasis on the role of the Mekong River to its socio-economicdevelopment, the PM said Vietnam would like developed countries tocontinue providing more financial and technical support, helping thecountry carry out projects in the fields stipulated in the developmentstrategy set by MRC for the period of 2011-2015.
Earlier, on April 2-3, an international conference on trans-boundarywater resource management took place. The conference drew theparticipation of over 300 delegates from the Mekong river basin, theother nine river basins, international organisations and water resourceexperts.
Participants at the event agreed that the protection as well asrational and equitable allocation of the Mekong River’s water resourcesis one of the factors affecting the socio-economic development of thewhole basin./.
