Mekong leaders set to meet up in Burma
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Six leaders from countries in the Mekong region will be meeting next week in the Burmese capital of Naypyidaw to discuss the development of infrastructure projects.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul and Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan will be at the forum on Monday and Tuesday, Foreign Ministry's spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said.
Surapong and Pichai will also hold separate meetings with their respective counterparts to seek cooperation on energy since Thailand needs more power for economic development, he said. Thailand currently imports natural gas from Burma to generate electricity and is looking for other sources such as hydropower projects along the Thai-Burmese border.
Construction giant Italian-Thai is at present in charge of a mega project at Dawei (Tavoy) and is building a special economic zone linking the two countries with the rest of the region.
Thani said Surapong and Pichai would be visiting the Dawei project early next year to look into the cooperation. Six countries in the Mekong basin, namely China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, came together in the mid-1980s under the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) scheme to develop infrastructure projects. The Asian Development Bank sponsored the scheme.
Leaders of the six nations held their first summit in November 2002 in Phnom Penh and have been meeting every three years since then. The countries are cooperating in several sectors including transportation, telecommunication, energy, agriculture, tourism, trade and investment.
Many projects have already materialised over the past few years, notably land route links from China to Laos and Thailand as well as Thailand to Laos and Vietnam.
The sub-regional grouping is also expanding regional links, like the East-West Economic Corridor is now being developed further to link Indian Ocean and the Pacific through Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
During the Naypyidaw summit, leaders would witness the signing of many pacts to forge cooperation in many areas.
The agreements include a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on joint action to reduce the population's vulnerability to HIV as well as on Cooperation to Develop the Information Superhighway Network Phase III. (from the nation)
