GMS Contents

The Twelfth Meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Working Group on Environment (WGE-12) was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 25-26 April 2006. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) of Thailand hosted the meeting in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The participants included delegations from Cambodia, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Observers/resource persons from MFLU, IGES, UNCRD, UNEP, SEI, SIDA, USAID, US EPA, The Netherlands Government, MRC, IUCN, WWF, and ADB also attended.

This publications summarizes the outcome of the 7th Meeting of the Subregional Telecommunications Forum of the Greater Mekong Subregion held in Guilin, People's Republic of China on 30-31 March 2006.

The transport sector is critical to economic cooperation among the countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Soon after its inception in 1992, the GMS Economic Cooperation Program developed a GMS Transport Master Plan (1995) to encourage commercial exchange among the countries to spur development, generate employment opportunities, and assist GMS countries’ programs to reduce poverty. The Transport Master Plan served well to develop the economic corridors that are the foundation of the GMS Program.

The GMS Working Group on Environment 2nd Semi-Annual Meeting (WGE SAM-2) was held on 28 November 2007 via videoconference at ADB resident missions in Cambodia, PRC, Lao PDR, Thailand, Viet Nam and ADB Headquarters as the host. WGE representatives from Myanmar extended their apologized for not being able to attend the meeting. The participants list is attached as Appendix 1. It was recognized that it was the first time videoconferencing was tried for a WGE meeting and some basic meeting rules were established to enable a smooth discussion.

This brief summarizes how the partnership of the Asian Development Bank and the countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion has been instrumental to the development of the GMS.

This Midterm Review of the 10-year Strategic Framework of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS–SF) (i) assesses whether the GMS–SF is still relevant and appropriate, considering the progress made and the changing regional and global environments; and (ii) puts forward recommendations to improve its overall impact.

This is the summary of proceedings from the 13th Annual Meeting of the Working Group on Environment (WGE AM-13) held on 13 -15 June 2007 in Guilin, Guangxi Province, People’s Republic of China.