S. Korea, Mekong nations launch first FM talks over economic, development cooperation

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- The foreign ministers of South Korea and Southeast Asia's five Mekong River nations launched their first meeting on Friday aimed at boosting economic and development cooperation, as Asia's fourth-largest economy seeks to strengthen its diplomacy with the resource-rich region.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan opened the inaugural Mekong-ROK (Republic of Korea) Foreign Ministers' Meeting at a Seoul hotel with his counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand in attendance. The two-hour talks will focus on promoting economic and development cooperation, as well as deepening political ties, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

Cambodian PM to attend first Mekong-Japan summit in Japan

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen will lead a high delegation to participate in the first Mekong-Japan Summit from Nov. 6 to 7, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan, according to a statement released by the Cambodian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

The statement said the delegation will include Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Cham Prasidh, senior minister and Minister of Commerce.

"This forthcoming summit clearly demonstrates the political commitment at the highest level of the Mekong countries and Japan for a comprehensive development of the Mekong region, including management of the Mekong River," the statement said.

During his stay in Japan, Hun Sen will be received in the Royal Audience by His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Naruhito at his Royal Palace, meet Takahiro Yokomichi, speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan, Eda Satsuki, president of the House of Councilors, and also hold a bilateral meeting with Hatoyama Yukio, Prime Minister of Japan.

The statement said at the end of the summit, Hun Sen will attend a joint press conference and signing ceremony on the Tokyo Declaration on a "New Partnership for the Common Flourishing Future" between Japan and the Mekong region countries, appended with the Japan-Mekong Action Plan.

As superpowers eye the Mekong, Thailand should act

July 30, 2009
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation

Recent diplomatic activity in the Mekong basin should not be underestimated by policy makers in Bangkok. The major superpowers have given their attention to the region and there could be significant development in the region's geo-politics. Ads by Google

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concluded a meeting with her counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam last week, back-to-back with the Asean ministerial meeting in Phuket.

Although the first US-Lower Mekong Ministerial Meeting produced no breakthrough, Clinton has shown Washington's commitment to expanding cooperation in environment, health, education and infrastructure development.

In a joint statement after the meeting, Clinton underlined the importance of the Mekong region and its individual countries to the US commitment to advancing peace and prosperity.

Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said Mekong basin countries wanted to see regular gatherings of ministers from the region and the US - if possible back-to-back with the Asean annual meetings.

Ministers of both sides agreed on the Mekong River Commission and the Mississippi River Commission pursuing a "sister river" partnership to share expertise and best practices in climate change adaptation; flood and drought management; hydropower and impact assessment; water demand and food security; water resource management, and other common concerns. They agreed senior officials and experts would discuss specific activities for cooperation and follow-up.

The initiative opened up room and roles for the US to play in the Mekong region it left after the Vietnam War in 1975, the war which created pain for Americans for years.

Laos's minister played it down. But it's understandable Clinton's initiative for a role in the Mekong basin would impact China which has boosted its place in the region for decades.

China regarded the Mekong basin as its backyard and backdoor to Southeast Asia -developing its stretch of the Mekong River for hydropower production and navigation since the early 1990s to connect with Southeast Asia. China has poured much into infrastructure development in the Mekong basin, including a road construction via Northern Laos to Thailand. Chinese leaders have their regular meetings with counterparts at minister and leader level under the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) scheme.

Not only China, but also Japan has increased its role in Mekong basin development for a long time. Tokyo has formed regular meetings with foreign ministers of Mekong basin countries since last year - the first in Tokyo in January. The second ministerial meeting is due in Cambodia's Siem Reap in October and Japan has proposed a summit meeting later this year.

Japan engaged the Mekong basin in the context of Asean, aiming to bridge the development gap between old Asean members and new members Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, known in Asean language as CLMV [M stands for Myanmar - Burma].

Unlike the US, China and Japan accept Burma in the cooperation plans, despite the junta-run regime's political difficulties.

Fortunately, Thailand was not left behind - and Thai ministers have seats in all meetings between the Mekong countries and the US, China and Japan.

However Bangkok needs a clear strategy for its association. Thailand has not the same status as other countries in the Mekong region because of its advanced economy and position as Asean founding member. Thailand is no longer a recipient but a regional donor country which has consistently played a significant role in Mekong basin development.

Previous governments positioned the country as coordinator of several cooperative and development schemes in the region, linking the superpowers and the Mekong countries.

The current government does not make clear whether it would maintain such a position. Its role was not high profile in the US-Lower Mekong cooperation - and Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said he has no strategy for the Japan-Mekong ministerial meeting in Siem Reap in October.

It is not too late to fine tune a strategy for any Mekong basin movement, but the time is not plentiful either. Many countries have begun to move.

Human trafficking on the rise in Mekong countries

HANOI, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Human trafficking in the six Mekong countries is expected to increase due to growing migration within the sub-region, the Laos newspaper Vientiane Times reported on Thursday, citing the Anti-human Trafficking Committee Secretariat Head Kiengkham Inphengthavong as saying.

"Trafficking in persons nowadays is increasingly acute and dangerous. It operates in a very intricate manner, and comes in many forms, and is therefore very hard to monitor and control," said Kiengkham Inphengthavong at the sixth Senior Officials Meeting held in Vientiane on Wednesday as part of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT).

Annually, the number of people trafficked from and within the region is estimated at between 200,000 and 450,000, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

The meeting brought together government officials from the six Mekong countries - Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Myanmar and Cambodia - to share their experiences and decide on appropriate responses to the increase in human trafficking.

"The purpose of human trafficking is not only for sexual exploitation but also labor exploitation in factories, sweatshops, domestic work, begging and in the fishing industry. The problem is far more widespread than many would think," he added.

According to the Laos' Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, from 2001 to 2008, 1,229 trafficked people, mostly women and girls, have been repatriated to Laos from Thailand under the Lao-Thai memorandum of understanding on human trafficking.

Laos is developing victim protection guidelines to ensure a more holistic and rights-based approach to the provision of care and assistance to victims of human trafficking, Khiengkham said.

Japan reaffirms support for Mekong

Tokyo pledges help on many fronts to lift GDP in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Saturday May 31, 2008
By Somporn Thapanachai in Tokyo
Bangkok Post

Japan has promised to continue investing effort and support to help three countries in the Mekong region - Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - achieve US$1,000 per-capita GDP within the next decade, according to Masahiko Koumura, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Under the Japan-Mekong Region Partnership Programme, Tokyo said it would support the fundamental values of people in the region such as democracy and the rule of law, the integration of the regional economy, and fostering of collaboration, as well as the expansion of trade and investment between Japan and the Mekong region.

On the fundamental values front, Mr Koumura elaborated that Japan would like to help find ways to overcome poverty and address issues of infectious diseases and environmental problems.

He urged the private sector to work actively to promote trade and investment in these countries while the Japanese government would enhance the safety of investment activity through bilateral investment agreements with Cambodia and Laos. Japan aims to convey its own experience in areas such as cross-border transit and customs procedures.

Based on a regional fact sheet of world development indicators 2008 compiled by the World Bank, the gross national income per capita of Vietnam is estimated at $700, $500 in Laos and $490 in Cambodia.

"Stimulating growth in the Mekong region, a late starter within Asean, will be of direct benefit to Asean as a whole, and in turn will benefit Japan itself, given its strong ties with Asean in the political, economic and cultural spheres," Mr Koumura told the audience at the recent Future of Asia conference organised by Nikkei.

Greater inflows of goods, people and capital from Thailand in the south and from China in the north are possible to Laos and Cambodia as wages in the two countries are around one-fifth of the level in Thailand.

Flows are also being helped by the substantial scope of improvement in transport networks and know-how in cross-border transit.

"In my view, the day on which these countries attain the $1,000 level, led by Vietnam and followed by Laos and Cambodia, will come within 10 years through their own efforts and support from Japan and other countries outside the region, especially the support of Asean as a whole," Mr Koumura said.

Japan has already taken steps to strengthen its relationship with the region by hosting the first Japan-Mekong Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Tokyo in January, attended by ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Vietnam and Thailand.

However, China already has a greater role in the region through its joint co-operation with Asian Development Bank and the Thai government for the investment to construct the road from Yunnan province to Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. The Chinese government has also expressed its intention to support the north-south railway network from Kunming to Singapore.

Mr Koumura said these projects offered tremendous potential for infrastructure in the region to be transformed over the next 10 years. The Chinese investment is an example of a win-win situation as it would benefit people of the region and also everybody else.

Japan has also declared the goal of making the Mekong region a "region of hope and development" through its Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the completion of the second Mekong Friendship Bridge linking Thailand and Laos. The Japanese government plans to provide $20 million to facilitate goods distribution across this east-west corridor and another $20 million for a "development triangle" on the borders of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

In respect to the development of the Mekong region, Japanese and Chinese foreign-policy officials have opened a dialogue on the countries' policies for the Mekong to co-ordinate policies and share information on a regular basis.

Mekong nations to form Opec-style rice cartel: Thai PM

April 30, 2008
AFP

BANGKOK - THAILAND'S prime minister said on Wednesday his country had agreed in principle to form a rice price-fixing cartel with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia as costs of the staple grain rocket.

The grouping of Mekong nations would be similar to the oil cartel Opec, and would be called the Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (Orec).

'I have talked with Myanmar and invited them to join the rice exporting countries cartel, which will include Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, to fix the price,' Premier Samak Sundaravej told reporters.

He said Myanmar's Prime Minister General Thein Sein, in Thailand for an official visit, had agreed to join, even through the military-ruled nation was not currently a large rice exporter.

'Thailand will help them in terms of technical support to improve their production for export,' Mr Samak said.

Mr Samak said Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia had also agreed to join, and Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said Orec should begin meeting soon.

Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter, and shipped an estimated 9.5 million tonnes of rice overseas last year.

World rice prices have soared this year, a trend blamed on higher energy and fertiliser costs, greater global demand, droughts, the loss of rice farmland to biofuel plantations, and price speculation.

International demand for Thai rice has soared after other top exporters Vietnam and India imposed limits on exports to ensure domestic supply.

Thailand has repeatedly insisted it will not limit exports, but on Tuesday the government announced it was releasing its stockpile of 2.1 million tonnes into the domestic market to keep prices stable.

The benchmark Thai variety, Pathumthani fragrant rice, was priced last Wednesday at 998 dollars (S$1,358) per tonne for export, up from 512 dollars a tonne in January this year, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in a price survey.

Contemporary-art event highlights the role of curators in the Mekong region

BRINGING ART TO LIFE

A historic contemporary-art event kicked off in Bangkok last Wednesday as part of a two-year process to introduce the art-curator profession into Mekong countries.

February 10, 2008
Kamol Sukin
The Nation (Thailand)

"It is the first time for such an event, with 32 art pieces by 20 artists from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Importantly, all the pieces were selected by art curators, one from each of the four nations. It really is an exhibition by the four curators," said Jakapan Vilasineekul, the Silapakorn University academic who organised the event.

"This is a historic event, which will be remembered in contemporary art circles," Apinan Posayanon, director of the Contemporary Art and Culture Office, said.

The four curators - Kong Vollak from Cambodia, Misouda Heuangsoukkhoun from Laos, Penwadee Nophaket Manont from Thailand and Le Ngoc Thanh from Vietnam - are new and were trained under the Mekong Art and Culture Project (MACP). The four curators were free to feature any kind of contemporary art by any artist in their country, giving the exhibition wide diversity but uniting it in some fascinating way.

Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich weaved dozens of pieces of bamboo strips into a turtle raising its long head to the sky, to portray what he called "our selves and our past and hopefully to find our way to reconcile them".

Laotian Kongphat Luangrath painted a human form crying out, with factories and buildings inside his body and surrounded by tree branches against a red hue, to express his view towards builders and destroyers.

Thai artist Nupat Arjkla exhibited a series of flawed photos from a digital camera which would normally be sent to the junk folder, to convey his message of an imperfect future.

Vietnamese Nguyen Manh Hung painted a picture of aircraft with bomb-like carrots and rice to reflect his country's history and development.

"It looks they are not expressing the same thing but in fact they are. They are all talking about what is underlying, or what you see is not what is really there," Chattiya Nitpolprasert, the curator and the project's organiser, explained.

"The underlying theme represents a consensus amongst the four curators. Each of them is free to translate it into their own particular meaning," she said.

In the past eight months, the four curators were busy selecting artists and art pieces in their home towns and discussing each piece with the others, both online and in person, Chattiya said.

"The most difficult part of this exhibition was to make them reach a consensus on everything - the topic, the pieces to be selected and the theme. All are from different backgrounds, but this was also a challenge to us," Chattiya said. "It was also a way to test the success of our art-curator workshop."

The workshop for art curators was one of 18 art and cultural activities under the MACP held since August 2006 in the four countries, Jakapan said.

"We want to use art and culture as a significant tool to build the relationship among the four countries, not just by simply sending art pieces from one country to exhibit in another. We encourage art curators to promote artists in each country working on particular subjects and to exchange their views with artists in the other countries before creating a mobile exhibition with a united view," he explained.

"For me this is a real cross-border cultural activity," he said. "Even the German curator that we invited to be the project instructor admired our initiative and said he would take this model back to Europe."

The responses from the four curators have also been enthusiastic.

"I learnt much about art galleries and how to efficiently convey an artist's message to an audience," Kong said.

"An art curator is like a film director who controls the theme and tone of the movie, while the artists are like actors in the film. It is very rewarding to express your opinion through other people's work," Misouda said.

"In the past I put all my efforts into producing good art pieces or selecting the best pieces for exhibition. Now I have learnt that presentation is also very important," Thanh said.

"My strongest impression is what I learnt in the process of making this exhibition. We are very different in background and ideas, so a willingness to compromise is one thing I have learnt. Without that we would not able to effectively convey charming art pieces to our audiences," Penwadee said.

All curators agreed that MACP activities would significantly improve contemporary-art development in their countries.

"People are more and more recognising contemporary art as a kind of art with real freedom in both content and expression," Vollack said of the situation in Cambodia.

In Vietnam, the situation is better and the number of contemporary artists is growing to some 300 nationwide, said Thanh.

"In Laos it is not so good. We are in an early development stage with no market. Our artists are mostly traditional style who are not familiar with contemporary art concepts," Misouda said.

"Activities such as this should at certain levels give more Thai people a chance to touch the charm of contemporary art and fall in love with it like I did," Penwadee said.

The exhibition will be at Tadu Contemporary Art until March 5, before moving to Phnom Penh from March 21 to April 8.

From April 25 to May 15 it will be in Vientiane, then in Hanoi from May 30 to June 13.

Japan steps up aid for Mekong areas [-Japan steps up aid for the Indochinese Triangle dominated by Vietnam]

01/16/2008
BY KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

In an apparent rivalry with Beijing for influence in the Mekong river region, Tokyo is increasing assistance to five Indochinese countries mainly to eradicate poverty.

In a key step, the first Japan-Mekong Foreign Ministers' Meeting will be held in Tokyo today with Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma) represented.

The forum will discuss cooperation in politics, economy and culture.

The foreign ministers from the five countries will separately meet with their Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura, and take part in investment promotion seminars.

Tokyo is putting a particular emphasis on the fight against poverty in the "Development Triangle" straddling Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, known as the CLV countries.

The mountainous area, which covers the poorest corners in each nation, is home to varied minority tribes who live mainly on slash-and-burn farming. Their average monthly income is a mere $25 (2,725 yen).

Many families in the area cannot even afford to send their children to elementary schools.

The triangle was left behind in development due to poor transportation infrastructure, aggravated by land mines buried during the Vietnam War.

The CLV countries in 2003 decided to jointly develop the area, asking Japan for assistance.

Japan today will announce a package of $40 million (4.4 billion yen) in grants to the five countries, including $20 million (2.2 billion yen) for the triangle, according to officials.

More than 20 projects are planned for the triangle in the education, health and medical fields as well as small-scale programs to build roads and power generation facilities.

Primary school buildings will be built or repaired at 20 locations, and assistance will be extended to construct high schools for minority tribes.

Officials say the package is intended for long-term support, especially in basic education.

"It has a great political significance in that assistance is extended to an area that has long been neglected by everyone," said a senior official of the Foreign Ministry.

Funds for the triangle will come from the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund, which Japan set up in 2006 to help economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The other $20 million in grants will be used to improve efficiency in commodity distribution via the East-West Corridor and the Second East-West Corridor.

The former crosses Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, while the latter connects Thailand and Cambodia.

Japan's aid "offensive" to the Mekong region was launched out of concern over the growing presence of China, which extends "visible" aid to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, in particular.

Beijing, for example, built a new office structure for Cambodia's council of ministers, as well as a cultural center and a national hero's statue for Laos.

In its Southeast Asian diplomacy, China is strengthening ties with the Mekong countries by helping to build infrastructure, with its eye apparently on rare metal resources.

Chinese companies from affluent coastal areas are making inroads, increasing border trade in daily goods and electrical appliances.

China's trade with ASEAN nations, accounting for 8.3 percent in 2004, is fast catching up with Japan's, at 13.8 percent. Chinese tourists to ASEAN nations also jumped near the number of Japanese.

China's moves have alarmed Tokyo, which has long maintained close ties with Southeast Asian nations and has also worked for peace in the region.

In 2004, Japan held a summit with the CLV nations, expressing strengthened support for the three countries amid overall cuts in the nation's official development assistance.

Even so, Japan was disappointed in 2005 by the failure of these Indochinese nations to join Japan and three other nations in proposing a "framework resolution" on reform of the U.N. Security Council.

Japan sought permanent membership on the Security Council with that resolution, but its attempt failed.

"Sandwiched between the rivalry between Japan and China, those nations were just watching both sides, leading the relationships to fall out of kilter," said a senior Foreign Ministry official.

The other reason Japan is seeking stronger ties with the CLV nations lies in its North Korean relations.

Because of nonaligned movements and socialist ties, the three nations have kept close relationships with the seclusionist North.

Tokyo apparently hopes deeper ties with them will lead to their support for Japan in resolving such thorny issues as North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals.