Economic cooperation opportunities that the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) generates for provinces, cities and 400 million residents are enormous. However, to turn potential into reality, trade promotion activities need to be carried out more strongly.
The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is an initiative created by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1992. The GMS member states are Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, an
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The Mekong Development Cooperation Forum and International Trade and Investment Fair 2009 will be held in Ho Chi Minh City from November 30 to December 12, with the fair to be opened from December 9 to 12, 2009.
The forum will consist of two workshops: “Overcoming crisis, looking towards a more dynamic and sustainable GMS” and “Looking towards a dynamic GMS”.
The International Mekong Trade and Investment Fair 2009 will have 300 booths which will display products and services of 200 companies and organisations from various nations and territories.
A wide range of products and services will be exhibited, including machines, equipment, industrial materials, etc. The fair will also reserve a space to present projects in need of investment. According to the organising board, the trade fair will rotationally be organised by GMS member countries.
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d Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of China.
GMS cooperation covers 10 fields, namely energy, environment, tourism, post and telecom, commerce, investment, human resource development, agriculture and rural development, and water source management. To date, the Subregion has advanced 150 priority projects and 11 top priority programmes together with many technical assistance projects. These projects and programmes have mobilised over US$10 billion of investment capital while technical assistant projects reached over US$190 million.
Vietnam joined GMS in 1992. At present, the country is carrying out five important projects, including the project to upgrade Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai road with a total investment capital of US$140 million, the project to upgrade the Dong Ha - Lao Bao section of the National Road 9 with an aggregate investment capital of US$35 million, the project to develop the GMS tourism infrastructure with a combined investment capital of US$12 million, the US$328 million project to develop coastal traffic system from Ca Mau to Kien Giang provinces, and the US$160 million Ha Noi - Lao Cai expressway in the Kunming - Hai Phong traffic corridor.
Since 2004, Vietnam has proposed 52 sub-projects in the East-West Economic Corridor and 44 sub-projects in Southern Economic Corridor. Besides, Vietnam also signed two GMS cooperation agreements, namely the GMS Cross-Border Transport Agreement (GMS Agreement) for the facilitation of cross-border transport of goods and people between GMS member states; and the Intergovernmental Agreement for Power Trade in the GMS (IGA).
In the past years, prioritised investment fields are infrastructure systems, especially traffic systems that link GMS member countries to facilitate economic development. Thanks to Subregion cooperation, Vietnam has strengthened investments into neighbouring countries. In Laos, with strengths in industry and construction material processing, including materials for gold mining, Vietnam’s investments climbed 20 % over previous years.
Tourism is the field in the GMS with the most potential and will be the fastest-growing sector in this region. According to calculation, the completed East - West Economic Corridor will boost travel from Malaysia and Thailand via Laos to Vietnam. For instance, since the Friendship 2 Bridge, which links Laos and Thailand, was opened for traffic in 2006, the number of visitor arrivals to Vietnam through this way quintupled.
Huong Ly
Vietnamese
