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The meeting was themed "Our River of Peace and Sustainable
Development”.
Participants shared the view that after two years, MLC made
important strides in building working mechanisms and implementing concrete
projects. Some outstanding outcomes include implementing 130 projects,
completing many "Early Harvest” projects, setting up centres for
environmental, water resource and Mekong research cooperation, along with
establishing and operating the MLC Special Fund.
In terms of future cooperation, the leaders reaffirmed the
goal of building a Mekong-Lancang region of peace, stability, sustainable
development and prosperity. They agreed that MLC needs to contribute more
actively to the region’s socio-economic development, narrow the development
gap among the member countries, assist the building of the ASEAN Community,
and cooperate with other mechanisms like the Greater Mekong Subregion and the
Mekong River Commission.
The leaders adopted the Phnom Penh Declaration and the
five-year MLC action plan for 2018-2022, which features major orientations
and measures for implementing cooperation in the three pillars of
security-politics, economic and sustainable development, and society, culture
and people-to-people exchange.
They applauded the 214 MLC projects proposed by the member
countries and agreed to gradually expand cooperation to big projects of the
subregion on the basis of maximising the MLC Special Fund and financial
sources mobilised from governments, the private sector, and international
financial organisations.
They agreed to consider water resource cooperation as a
high priority area, increase cooperation in managing and using water
resources sustainably through such activities as policy dialogue, sharing
information and hydrological data, carrying out joint research and pilot
projects relating to water resources of the Mekong-Lancang River, and
considering the establishment of a hotline for emergency situations.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaking at the meeting (Credit: VGP)
Speaking at the meeting, PM Phuc affirmed Vietnam’s
attachment of importance and contribution to MLC over the past years. In
terms of cooperation in the next five years, he called for more attention to
increasing cooperation in protecting, managing and using the Mekong River’s
water resources in an effective and sustainable manner, thus turning water
resource cooperation into a cooperation focus of the six countries.
Priorities in the short term should include increasing
sharing information and hydro-meteorological statistics, cooperating in
response to drought and flood, conducting joint scientific studies, and
considering the building of regulations on inter-reservoir operations along
the Mekong-Lancang River, the Vietnamese leader said.
He also suggested developing completed and interconnected
infrastructure systems to facilitate the movement of goods, services, capital
and people. The Mekong-Lancang countries should be assisted to make use of
opportunities from Industry 4.0 through sharing experience, knowledge and
technology to promote industrialisation in the member nations; developing
businesses and training skillful labourers; attracting resources into
infrastructure development and creating conditions for projects to tap into
their potential and strengths; providing jobs for people; enhancing
cooperation in researching and transferring technology to develop
agriculture, especially hi-tech organic farming.
Vietnam’s proposals and contributions were shown in the
meeting’s documents and highly valued by the member countries.
At the meeting, PM Phuc and other leaders attended a
ceremony handing over the MLC co-chairmanship to Laos, a joint press
conference on the meeting’s outcomes, and a photo exhibition on
Mekong-Lancang achievements.
On the sidelines of the event, PM Phuc had working sessions
with Cambodian PM Hun Sen, Lao PM Thongloun Sisoulith, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang, and Thai PM Prayuth Chan-o-cha.
The leaders at the gala dinner (Credit: VGP)
Source: NDO |
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