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News & Updates

Greater Mekong Subregion Summit in Kunming, China1

July 2005

The Second Summit of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program opened on 5 July 2005, highlighting the strong will of the six Asian nations to strive for collective prosperity through pragmatic cooperation.

Since the GMS program was initiated in 1992, the six member states of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam have jointly launched 119 projects in transportation, energy, telecommunications, trade and investment, tourism, environment, human resources and agriculture, which helped promote the economical and social development in the region, benefited tens of thousands of people, particularly the poor, and contributed to peace in this region and beyond.

Sitting next to each other along the Lancang-Mekong River, the six GMS partners, some of which are still quite underdeveloped and suffering from various social problems like drug, human trafficking and spread of epidemics, share similar cultures and have developed sound political ties and close people-to-people contacts.

During the summit, the prime ministers of the six countries are expected to pass a leaders' declaration, or the Kunming Declaration, to review the ongoing GMS programs and outline cooperation plans in the future.

They will also sign a number of GMS cooperative documents on transportation, information superhighway construction, power trade operating and animal epidemics prevention.

The Kunming Declaration can be accessed here: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx/t202381.htm

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¹ "Greater Mekong Subregion Summit opens in Kunming, vowing co-ops." (China Daily, 5 July 2005)