New Project Endeavors to Intensify Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Mechanism
March 18, 2019
Bangkok, Thailand (March 18, 2019) – A new project that aims to strengthen the capacities of key actors in delivering the objectives of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation is being officially launched today as the Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Embassy of P.R. China in Thailand, and Mekong Institute (MI) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok, Thailand.
Mrs. Busaya Mathelin, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand and H.E. Lyu Jian, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Thailand are signing the MoU between the two governments. Meanwhile, Mrs. Vilawan Mangklatanakul, Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs and Dr. Watcharas Leelawath, MI Executive Director, are signing the cooperation agreement on the project as MI assumes its role as implementing agency.
Supported by the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund, the five-year project entitled “Capacity Building for National Coordinator of Mekong-Lancang Cooperation” aims to intensify the MLC mechanism framework and further enhance coordination among key national actors by strengthening their capacities. The project leverages on MI’s position as an intergovernmental human resource capacity building organization in delivering capacity development activities that will broaden the awareness and knowledge of critical coordination issues pertaining to the MLC’s five priority areas (water resource management, agriculture and poverty reduction, production capacity, cross-border trade, and connectivity).
“The LMC [Lancang-Mekong Cooperation] stays as an open, inclusive and mutually beneficial mechanism. It collaborates with the GMS and ACMECS to reinforce each other and jointly promote sub-regional development,” Ambassador of P.R. China to Thailand Lyu Jian remarks. “We believe that the LMC will keep injecting strong impetus into the development and prosperity of the region and improving the well-being of people of the six countries,” he adds.
Dr. Tej Bunnag, advisor to the MI Council also spoke of MI’s role in the new project. “Its role in this new MLC project puts MI in an even better position to carry out and deliver on its objective of strengthening regional cooperation and integration. Taking part in this new initiative gives Mekong Institute a pivotal task of ensuring that the MLC becomes a sustainable cooperation mechanism with meaningful impacts particularly on the five priority areas of the MLC.”
MI is also the implementing agency of five other MLC Special Fund-supported projects, four of which are geared towards the promotion of regional trade facilitation and investment, and the fifth on strengthening cooperation mechanism on water power projects in the Mekong-Lancang River basin.
The MoU signing comes at an opportune time as the MLC also celebrates this week the 2nd Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Week.
For more information about the project, please contact:
Mr. Madhurjya Kumar Dutta
Director, Trade and Investment Facilitation Department
Mekong Institute, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Tel: +66 43 202411-2 ext. 2101
Email: dutta@mekonginstitute.org