Mekong Sub-region forum to open late next month

The event will be organized by the Việt Nam-Laos-Cambodia Association for Economic Cooperation and Development (AECD) and the Vietnamese Ministries of Planning and Investment, Industry and Trade, and Foreign Affairs.

The forum is an real step to enhance trade-investment ties and friendship among the Mekong Sub-region countries in particular and between them and other neighbor countries in general, said Mr. Lại Quang Thực, Chairman of the AECD at a press briefing today in Hà Nội.

Various activities during the event include a seminar on "Overcoming crisis – moving torward a more stable and dynamic Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS)" on November 30 in Hà Nội and the other "Towards a dynamic GMS" on December 9 in Hồ Chí Minh City (HCMC). 

The two seminars aim at promoting the region’s initiatives and mobilizing capital for projects in the region and in Việt Nam as well.

Also on December 9 in HCMC, the Trade and Investment Exhibition 2009 will open for 200 regional enterprises specializing in engineering, equipment, materials, chemicals, and trade.

The GMS, which consists of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Việt Nam and two Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi, was set up in 1992 under the initiative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with a long-term target of boosting and facilitating cooperation to turn the region into a dynamic, stable, and prosperous area.

For nearly 20 years, the GMS has worked out 14 initiatives, of which economic aspect has broadest cooperation level and Việt Nam always plays an active role in all regional cooperation scale.

Visible increasing connectivity shows a long-term cooperation trend in the GMS./.

By Hải Minh