New momentum for GMS and CLV cooperation

The press conference announcing the sixth GMS and tenth CLV Summit in Hanoi

The sixth Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) Summit and the tenth Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle Summit will take place tomorrow in Hanoi.

According to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dang Dinh Quy, the occasions which are expected to bring together more than 2,000 delegates, 200 corporate entities, and 150 media representatives are among the most important multilateral diplomatic events in Vietnam this year.

The sixth GMS agenda is unique in that for the first time under Vietnamese initiative, the GMS Business Forum will take with increased discussions between the entrepreneurial community and state management agencies, as well as more activities to connect international and regional enterprises.

More than 200 foreign corporate entities have registered to take part in the forum which draws special attention from Chinese groups and businesses coming from Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong, among others.

The forum takes place after representatives from the six GMS member countries have signed an “Early Harvest” memorandum of understanding (MoU) of the GMS cross-border transport facilitation agreement (GMS CBTA) in Hanoi.

According to the Ministry of Transport (MoT), the MoU is a message for relevant countries to simultaneously implement the mutually agreed undertakings in the GMS framework.

The six relevant GMS countries will adopt a process to ensure the effective implementation of the one-door/one-stop model, a guarantee scheme to facilitate the cross-border transportation of vehicles, and regulate a kind of license allowing transport vehicles and people to cross the borders of all stakeholder member countries.

“The MoU is crucial because it will create a legal corridor allowing transport vehicles and people to cross the borders of relevant countries. A large volume of goods will be transported by land roads now instead of waterways, helping to reduce logistics costs,” said Nguyen Van The, Deputy Minister of Transport.

The GMS Summit is organised on the occasion of 25 years of co-operation, as well as to find development orientations to develop an integrated, sustainable, and prosperous GMS.

In the framework of the GMS Summit, the tenth CLV Summit on Development Triangle Area will also take place to review the performance of the master plan on CLV socioeconomic development in 2010-2020, as well as discuss co-operation orientations in the coming time, particularly the economic connection between the three countries.