Heads of delegations at the conference (Photo: VNA) Phnom Penh (VNA) – Deputy Minister of Planningand Investment Vu Dai Thang led a Vietnamese delegation to the 23rd GreaterMekong Subregion (GMS) Ministerial Conference that took place in Phnom Penh,Cambodia from November 17-18.
Themed “Greater Integration, Inclusivity and Sustainability in the GMS,” the event aimed to prepare for the seventh GMSSummit slated for 2021 in Cambodia.
At the event, participants discussedand reviewed the new long term strategic framework of GMS for the GMS leaders’consideration and endorsement at the seventh GMS Summit.
They will be briefed on thepreliminary results of a research programme that aims to support theimplementation of the new GMS strategy through policy recommendations, whilereviewing progress since the previous conference in various fields such astransport, energy, agriculture, tourism, trade, environment and health care.
They noted that over the pastthree decades, the GMS Programme has invested in constructing and maintaining11,000km of roads, 500km of railway and 3,00km of power transmission lines,while enhancing energy generation capacity to provide to more than 200,000households.
The programme has supplied technicalassistance to enhance the soft and hard connection through trade andtrans-border transport coordination, along with the adjustments of the healthcare and quarantine systems, biodiversity and environment protection anddeveloping agricultural value chain.
At the conference, GMScountries and the ADB also discussed difficulties facing the programme,including trade tension, climate change and energy security problems.
Participants agreed on a GMShealth care cooperation strategy for the 2019-2023 period.
Addressing the event, theVietnamese Deputy Minister lauded cooperation and coordination among GMScountries as well as the important role of development partners, especially theAsian Development Bank (ADB) as the GMS Secretariat in providing technicalsupport, resources and knowledge to GMS member countries to complete theirsocio-economic development goals.
Thang proposed that the ADBand partners will continue working closely and mobilising resources to realisethe Regional Investment Framework 2022 (RIF) with 255 projects worth about 92billion USD, while encouraging the private sector’s engagement.
The GMS region comprisesCambodia, Laos, Myanmar, China, Thailand and Vietnam. With the support of theADB, the six GMS countries launched their economic cooperation since 1992, withpriority on areas of agriculture, energy, environment, health care, humanresources, IT, tourism, transport, trade, urban development and border economy.
Since its formation, the GMSProgramme has invested nearly 23 billion USD in projects in the whole region aswell as trans-border transport and energy systems, as well as infrastructurefor tourism and disease prevention./.
VNA
