Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the second Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo: VNA)
Stressing the important principals of the cooperation for the socio-economic development of member states as well as regional peace, stability and prosperity, the Vietnamese leader underlined stronger collaboration in effective and sustainable management and use of Mekong water resources.
Overriding priorities should be given to hydro-meteorological statistics and information sharing, cooperation in response to droughts and floods and joint scientific research to construct reservoirs along the Mekong River as well as infrastructure development to facilitate flows of commodities, services and capital, and local people’s travel, he noticed.
It is necessary to support member states to take advantages of the fourth industrial revolution to promote their industrialisation process, he said, adding that efforts should be made to develop high-quality human resources, enhance research and technology transfer in agriculture, especially hi-tech organic development.
The MLC is a sub-regional cooperation mechanism that was jointly established in 2016. With the theme of “Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development”, this year's meeting drew the participation of leaders from six members: Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
At the event, they reaffirmed the goal of building a Mekong-Lancang region of peace, stability, sustainable development and prosperity. They reached consensus that the MLC should contribute more to promoting regional socio-economic development, narrowing development gap among member states and supporting the ASEAN Community building.
The mechanism must be in harmony with programmes and plans like the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, the Initiative for ASEAN Integration, the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and many other regional connectivity initiatives.
The leaders adopted Phnom Penh statement and MLC action plan during 2018-2022 with measures to realise cooperation in three pillars: security-politics; economy and sustainable development; society, culture and people-to-people exchange.
They hailed 214 projects proposed by MLC members and agreed to enhance cooperation in management and sustainable use of water resources via an array of activities, including policy dialogue, hydro-meteorological statistics and information sharing, technical cooperation, joint research and pilot projects related to Mekong water.
Also, they consented to step up environment collaboration, especially in minimising environmental risks in economic activities.
The biennial MLC Leaders’ Meeting is organised in rotation among the member countries. This year’s event is co-organised by Cambodia and China./.