Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam summit begins in Nay Pyi Taw

The summit was attended by President Thein Sein, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wunna Maung Lwin, Thailand's Deputy Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs General Tanasak Patimapragorn, Cambodia’s Sectretary of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs Long Visalo, Vietnam's Deputy Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Secretary General of Asean Le Luong Minh.

According to the joint statement released at the CLMV summit, the appointees from all participating countries reviewed the progress of projects agreed upon in the previous CLMV summit held in Vietnam as well as the future direction of the CLMV cooperation with the goal of narrowing the development gap between the ASEAN nations.

Furthermore, the CLMV cooperative reaffirmed and discussed upon the following sectors; trade and investment cooperation, transport cooperation, agricultural, industry energy and telecommunication/ information communication and technology cooperation, tourism cooperation and human resource development.

In the trade and investment cooperation, the CLMV agreed, expressed their commitments and encouraged more effort on the usage, expansion and future implementation of completed and on-going projects such as the Lao-Myanmar Friendship Bridge and Single Stop Inspection international border checkpoints so that trade, investment, tourism and transportation can be better facilitated.

For the transport cooperation, the deepening of coordination to get the most out of economic corridors across the CLMV countries such as the North-South Economic Corridor, East-West Economic Corridor, the Southern Economic Corridor which are under the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) in helping to facilitate cross border movement of goods and passengers according to GMS Cross Border Trade Agreement, ASEAN Single Window, ASEAN Customs Transit system and other bilateral and multilateral arrangements participated by CLMV countries. The facilitation of air transport was also discussed with talks of implementing bilateral and multilateral agreements on air services, including inter alia the CLMV Multilateral Agreement on Air Services.

The agricultural, industry energy and telecommunication/information communication and technology cooperation saw a massive load of interest with the CLMV agreeing to facilitate investment, enhance cooperation, develop joint research and promote fields such as agriculture, fishery, forestry, livestock, industry, energy; namely being SMEs development, production, research and processing of agricultural products, climate smart agriculture, mineral extraction, renewable energy, sustainable hydropower development, oil and gas exploration, IT infrastructure development to securely exchange information and technologies, power transmission lines and networks, industrial policy development through organizing workshops and training courses regularly.

The CLMV agreed upon the tourism cooperation through the following points; the 11.4 percent growth of tourists visiting the CLMV countries in 2014 which highlights the importance of linkage in ensuring sustainable and responsible tourism as well as further increasing the attractiveness of the CLMV Sub-region as one of the world's top tourist destination. The invitation towards international organizations, financial institutions, other development partner countries and the private sector in maintaining and increasing sustainable, responsible tourism as well as skilling up the human resources.

As for human resource development, already existing academic supports such as exchange of scholarships, visits and experiences was appraised and agreed on working with various development partners in conducting vocational training and skills development programs.

The 6th annual CLMV summit was held in Vientiane, Laos in 2014.

The Third meeting of CLMV's Tourism Ministers will be conducted on the 28th of July in Myanmar while Vietnam's offer to host the next, 8th annual CLMV summit has been accepted but the specific date and venue has yet to be specified.