Laos greatly values Mekong-Japan cooperation

Laos highly appreciates the collaboration between the Mekong sub-region countries and Japan, especially assistance from Japan that has contributed to development within Laos and its integration with the region.
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith made the statement at the 11th Mekong-Japan Summit held on Monday in Bangkok, Thailand.
The meeting was co-chaired by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attending.

The Mekong-Japan Summit is a cooperation mechanism between the five Mekong countries of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The heads of government of these countries and Japan held the first summit in Tokyo in November 2009.
During this week’s summit, the Japanese government agreed to provide Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans of up to 1.5 billion yen to the Lao government to support reforms moving forward the country’s economic and social development projects.
At Monday’s summit, Mr Thongloun, representing the Lao government and people, thanked the Japanese government and people for their support for connectivity and social development projects such as high-standard infrastructure development, human resource development, and technical assistance.
Mr Thongloun said these projects not only contributed to socio-economic development within the country but also built infrastructure for the connectivity and economic integration of the Mekong region and beyond, in support of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards 2030.
At the conference, the leaders adopted the joint summit statement and initiatives on cooperation on the SDGs between the five Mekong countries and Japan.
The summit acknowledged the success of the 12th Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers Meeting, and the 11th Mekong-Japan Economic Ministers Meeting held in August and September respectively.
The leaders reviewed progress in cooperation over the past year, particularly that under the three pillars of the “Tokyo Strategy 2018”, which they adopted at their meeting in Tokyo last year.
To continue implementing the Tokyo Strategy, Japan, on behalf of the development partners of the Mekong countries, has drafted the Mekong-Japan Initiative for SDGs Towards 2030 by selecting priority SDGs that are appropriate to the Mekong countries.
Mekong-Japan collaboration is known as cooperation between Japan and the countries of the Ayeyawady-Chao Praya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS).
At the 12th Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers Meeting in August, then Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Japan would continue to advance Japan-Mekong cooperation under the “Tokyo Strategy 2018”, and announced that his country had decided to become an ACMECS Development Partner to support the Mekong countries’ initiative.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update November 6, 2019)