GMS to approve 227 projects worth $66 billion

The sixth GMS with the participation of the six prime ministers and head of delegation of the six GMS countries and reperesentatives of ADB, WB and ASEAN members

The summit was chaired by Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, with the participation of Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, Lao PDR’s Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Myanmar’s Vice President Henry Van Thio, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi.

Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) president Takehiko Nakao, ASEAN secretary general Lim Jock Hoi, and chief executive office and chief finance office of World Bank (WB) Joaquim Levy also attended the summit.

The summit highly appreciated important achievements of GMS over 25 years on the basis of 3C strategy “Connectivity, Competitiveness, and Community”. Co-operation scale is over $21 billion with hundred projects covering all sectors, notably the co-operation of building and upgrading numerous airports, 80 bridges, 10,000 kilometre road, 500km railway, and 3,000km electrical transmission line.

This is also the leading co-operation mechanism of building cross-nation economic corridors such as Earth-West, North-South, and Southern coastal economic corridors.

Other co-operation sectors such as trade, agriculture, environment also obtained good outcomes. Currently, GMS is a dynamic, integrated area, consisting the fastest-growth economies.

Co-operation orientation in the next five years, the summit has approved the Hanoi Action Plan for 2018-2022 and the Region Investment Framework 2022 to determine the major co-operation contents and make some adjustments to meet demand of country members’ development.

This framework contains 227 projects with total investment of nearly $66 billion.

GMS Summit also agreed with Vietnamese PM Phuc's proposal to start the process of building long-term vision post 2022 for GMS co-operation in order to help country members implement the Agenda 2030 by the United Nations.

Co-operation in terms of coping with climate change, environmental protection, and water sources management were also discussed on the basis of cross-border co-operation and mutual efforts to ensure food, water resources, and energy security.

Additionally, leaders has recognised fields co-operation strategy on the fields of transport, tourism, agriculture, and environment, as well as ratify the report of 25 years of GMS co-operation and GMS e-commerce co-operation.