VGP – Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar co-chaired the 10th Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on August 1.

Deputy Prime Minister at the 10th Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC)
Ministerial Meeting, Bangkok, Thailand August 1, 2019

The event was also attended by the foreign ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy PM Minh spoke highly of MGC activities over the past few years, and thanked India for providing support for the Mekong region.

He emphasized that the year 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of MGC, and this is time to design a roadmap to bring MGC to new heights.

The Vietnamese official suggested giving priority to strengthening connectivity, especially the expansion of the East-West Economic Corridor, the Southern Economic Corridor leading to India via road and sea routes, and the India-Myanmar-Thailand expressway leading to Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam.

Deputy PM Minh also recommended actively studying projects to support the development of multi-modal transport networks connecting the Mekong region and India, in addition to facilitating trade and investment through the removal of trade barriers, trade promotion, cooperation in customs clearance and quarantine, and the development of a regional supply chain.

Priority should be given to promoting sustainable water resource management, especially the implementation of projects on the collection and monitoring of water resource data, groundwater management, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and flood and drought control, he added.

In order to better meet the demand for development and adaptation to common challenges, as well as further promoting the cooperation potential between Mekong countries and India, the ministers adopted the MGC action plan for the 2019-2022 period, with the supplementation of three new areas of cooperation, including water resource management, science and technology, and capacity building and skill development.

The meeting also welcomed India becoming a development partner of the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS).

At the end of the meeting, the ministers adopted a joint statement and agreed to hold the 11th MGC Ministerial Meeting in Viet Nam in 2020.