A two-day conference on accelerating development in the Mekong region opened here on Monday to ponder on ways of enhancing regional cooperation, bridging development gap in this part of the region and promote sustainable development.
The high-level seminar was organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Secretariat of ASEAN and the royal government of Cambodia. The official representatives from the Mekong countries -- Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam -- as well as academia, researchers and business people attended the seminar.
Takatoshi Kato, the IMF's deputy managing director, and Ong Keng Yong, the secretary general of ASEAN, co-chaired the seminar. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen delivered a keynote address.
The topics of the seminar would include: the main challenges to bridging the development gap between the Mekong region and the rest of Asia; the benefits and risks for the Mekong countries toward bilateral and regional trade cooperation; the challenges faced by the Mekong region in their efforts to compete in an increasingly integrated regional and global economy; and the opportunities and obstacles to investment in the Mekong region.
Hun Sen said that "the processes of accelerating development through economic integration not only affect our own individual life but they also affect how societies interact with each other and co-exist among one another."
The Mekong region is endowed with abundant natural resources, and inhabited by almost 300 million people, which presents a tremendous potential for the economic and market opportunities, the premier said.
"The past experiences have taught us that the lack of cooperation among nations of the Mekong region has made the region vulnerable to external shocks and mire in poverty," Hun Sen said. "Therefore, the learned lessons are to closely cooperate with each other in order to become a region with strong integration and resilient regional economic development," he added.
Hun Sen, at the same time, pointed out that "the fundamental challenge of our cooperation is financing." He, therefore, called the member countries in the Mekong region to mobilize domestic resource; to enhance cooperation with donor community; to attract private sector's participation and to make joint efforts to improve market access to products originated from the Mekong countries.
Source: Xinhua
The high-level seminar was organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Secretariat of ASEAN and the royal government of Cambodia. The official representatives from the Mekong countries -- Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam -- as well as academia, researchers and business people attended the seminar.
Takatoshi Kato, the IMF's deputy managing director, and Ong Keng Yong, the secretary general of ASEAN, co-chaired the seminar. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen delivered a keynote address.
The topics of the seminar would include: the main challenges to bridging the development gap between the Mekong region and the rest of Asia; the benefits and risks for the Mekong countries toward bilateral and regional trade cooperation; the challenges faced by the Mekong region in their efforts to compete in an increasingly integrated regional and global economy; and the opportunities and obstacles to investment in the Mekong region.
Hun Sen said that "the processes of accelerating development through economic integration not only affect our own individual life but they also affect how societies interact with each other and co-exist among one another."
The Mekong region is endowed with abundant natural resources, and inhabited by almost 300 million people, which presents a tremendous potential for the economic and market opportunities, the premier said.
"The past experiences have taught us that the lack of cooperation among nations of the Mekong region has made the region vulnerable to external shocks and mire in poverty," Hun Sen said. "Therefore, the learned lessons are to closely cooperate with each other in order to become a region with strong integration and resilient regional economic development," he added.
Hun Sen, at the same time, pointed out that "the fundamental challenge of our cooperation is financing." He, therefore, called the member countries in the Mekong region to mobilize domestic resource; to enhance cooperation with donor community; to attract private sector's participation and to make joint efforts to improve market access to products originated from the Mekong countries.
Source: Xinhua
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