Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh has proposed that current economic corridors in the Mekong subregion should expand their links with other Asian regions via a multi-mode transportation model regarding the subregion’s important role in economic connectivity and integration.

Minh delivered the idea when speaking at the seventh Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held on August 10 in Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Taw on the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

He also suggested speeding up agriculture and tourism connectivity and collaboration between localities and enterprises of the Mekong states and Japan , including a partnership between Vietnam ’s Mekong Delta region and Japanese localities, which were hailed and put in the Statement of the Chair at the event.

Minh expressed hope for more multinational cooperation projects carrying clear hallmark of the Mekong-Japan partnership to be developed in the time to come.

Vietnam will continue work closely with other Mekong states and Japan to successfully implement the Tokyo Strategy 2012 on the Mekong-Japan cooperation, he pledged.

Chaired by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, the meeting reviewed the implementation of a plan of actions to realise the Tokyo Strategy 2012 and measures to boost cooperation in all three pillars, including connectivity and narrowing development gap, sustainable development together, and environmental protection and social welfares.

The ministers spoke highly of Japan’s effective support for the Mekong region in infrastructure development, creating favourable conditions for trade and investment as well as environmental preservation and human resource training.

They also agreed on specific measure to step up the execution of the Tokyo Strategy 2012 and the plan of actions for “A Decade towards Green Mekong” initiative.

The meeting issued a joint statement recognising efforts of the Vietnamese and Lao Governments in conducting the one-stop-shop model at Lao Bao-Densavan border gate on the East-West Economic Corridor.

The Japanese foreign minister and his counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam also agreed to organise their eighth meeting in Malaysia in 2015 on the fringes of the 48 th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.-VNA