The Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) working group convened its fourth meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on April 25.
Vietnamese
Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, US Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State Michael Fuchs, US Ambassador to ASEAN David Carden
and nearly 100 delegates from LMI’s member countries (Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the US) and the group’s
partners attended the event.
The two-day meeting aims to
review LMI activities since the third meeting in Phuket, Thailand from
September 27-28, 2012, realise cooperation programmes and prepare for
the sixth LMI Ministerial Meeting scheduled for June in Brunei.
In
his opening speech, Deputy FM Bui Thanh Son highly appreciated LMI’s
achievements over the past four years, as well as the Mekong countries
and the US for promoting cooperation.
He asked
the LMI working group to focus on implementing activities approved at
the LMI Ministerial Meetings while enhancing links between LMI and ASEAN
as well as other subregion cooperation mechanisms, including CLV, CLMV
and ACMECS.
On the first day of the meeting, participants
discussed measures to improve LMI’s role both in the Mekong region and
Southeast Asia, LMI’s connection to ASEAN goals, how to set up a LMI
coordinating network in the region and increase Friends of Lower
Mekong’s participation in LMI activities.
LMI was set up
in 2009. Its six pillars include environment and water, healthcare,
education, connectivity, agriculture and food, and energy security.-VNA