The Asian Development Bank (ADB) organized the Regional Workshop on Improving Laboratory Services and Infection Prevention and Control in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) on 4 to 5 June 2018 in Mandalay, Myanmar. The participants were government officials, laboratory services focal persons, infection prevention and control experts from Ministry of Health of Cambodia, Lao PDR Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam; and representatives from ADB and development partners (JICA, USAID, FAO and URC).

The overall objective of the workshop was to improve the quality of laboratory services and infection prevention control capacity within GMS related to emerging and infectious diseases and communicable disease control.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in coordination with International Organization for Migration
(IOM) organized the Regional Knowledge Exchange Workshop on Malaria Interventions Among
Mobile Migrant Populations in Bangkok on 17 to 18 May 2018 to share successes, challenges,
and lessons learned during the implementation of RCDTA 8959-REG: Malaria and
Communicable Diseases Control in the GMS. The participants were officials of the Ministry of
Health of Cambodia and Lao PDR, officials of the Ministry of Health and Sports of Myanmar,
village health volunteers, mobile traders, and peer educators from Lao PDR and Myanmar.

The first meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-1) was held in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR on 13-14 December 2017.

The second meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-2) will be held in Yangon, Myanmar on 10 to 11 December 2018.

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Corridors Forum (ECF) in 2018 marks the 20th year of the GMS economic corridor development approach since its formal adoption at the 6th GMS Ministerial Conference in 1998 to accelerate subregional development. It is the 10th year of the forum since its inaugural meeting in Kunming, People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2008. This is also the first ECF following the 6th GMS Summit in March 2018, which adopted the Hanoi Action Plan 2018–2022 that has among its key elements a spatial strategy focused on the economic corridors.