The PM’s participation at the eventsis intended to also seek stronger collaboration with regional countriesin water resource protection and human resources development, raisingVietnam’s status and leading role in Mekong cooperation.
Through the summits, Vietnam also hopes to reinforce affiliationwith regional states as well as all-round partnerships with Myanmar .
The CLMV Summit, which was first held in 2004, isan open cooperation mechanism aiming to promote potential and advantagesof CLMV and calling for support from other ASEAN countries as well aspartners for the four countries.
The sixth CLMVSummit was held in Vientiane in March 2013, during whichparticipants approved a Vientiane Joint Statement on fosteringcooperation in transport, agriculture, energy industry, tourism andhuman resources development to narrow the development gap among ASEANcountries.
Along with 10 existing Mekong cooperationmechanisms, the Mekong states also have effective partnerships with theUS, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Asian DevelopmentBank.
Meanwhile, the ACMECS Summit, groupingCambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, targets common andbilateral economic cooperation, to promote the advantages of the regionand member countries, also to narrow the development gap.
Vietnam officially joined the summit in 2004 during the firstACMECS ministers’ meeting, which was held in Thailand in Novemberthat year.
Currently, ACMECS has seven cooperationareas - trade-investment, agriculture, industry-energy, transport,tourism, human resources development and healthcare.
During the most recent summit in Laos in 2013, the leaders passedthe Vientiane Statement and the ACMECS Action Programme for 2013-15 withmajor goals to bolster links between ACMECS and the ASEAN Community aswell as implement the ASEAN Connectivity Plan.
Inrecent years, Mekong countries have maintained stable economicdevelopment with average annual growth of 6-7 percent. The ASEANEconomic Community, to be formed in late 2015, is expected to open newprospects as well as challenges for member countries in socio-economicdevelopment and narrowing the development gap.-VNA