Information and Communications Technology

Information and communication technology (ICT) is helping to transcend geographic boundaries across the Greater Mekong Subregion.

More and more people have access to phones and the internet, enabling individuals, communities, and businesses to connect and collaborate as never before. The countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) recognize the importance of investing in ICT to improve productivity and efficiency, build knowledge-based economies, and reduce poverty.

Under the GMS Program, cooperation in this sector has contributed to a subregional “information superhighway” based on interconnected telecommunications infrastructure. The countries are now leveraging ICT to make the GMS more economically integrated and competitive.

In 2015, the GMS Cross-Border E-Commerce Cooperation Platform was established, followed a year later by the GMS E-Commerce Business Alliance. Together, these two initiatives are boosting intraregional trade through policy exchanges, enterprise interaction, and capacity building.

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Summary of Proceedings

Contact Persons

Focal Persons at the Asian Development Bank

  • Pinsuda Alexander 
    Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
    Southeast Asia Department 

  • Arun Ramamurthy 
    Transport Sector Office
    Sectors Group

Other Concerned Staff & Consultants

  • Lucia Martin Casanueva
    Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
    Southeast Asia Department/GMS Secretariat 

Send inquiries to GMS Secretariat. 

A 24/7 automatic dispensing machine provides free rice for people out of work following the lockdown. This was spearheaded by a Vietnamese entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Reuters on Twitter.

Initiative Gathers Mekong Innovations Spurred by the COVID-19 Pandemic

An initiative by the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO), Destination Mekong, and the Mekong Institute (MI) taps individuals' help in crowdsourcing newly-spotted innovations on how the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is being managed and/or overcome in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

Officials view trolley robots donated by the Ministry of Education while smaller photo shows a drone with a loud speaker. Photo: Eleven Myanmar

Myanmar Universities Invent Robots that Reduce Contact between Health Workers and COVID-19 Patients

Robots are helping keep medical workers in Myanmar safer and lowering the risk of further spreading the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by reducing contact with COVID-19 and COVID-19-suspected patients.  

Motorcycle tires being manufactured inside the Camel Rubber Vietnam Co. Ltd factory at the Lao Bao Commercial Area in Huong Hoa District, Quang Tri, Viet Nam. The tires produced by the company are sold locally and are also exported to Lao PDR, Cambodia, Thailand, European and South American countries, as well as to other countries in the ASEAN region. Photo by the Asian Development Bank.

ADB Promotes Trade and Cross-border Investment between SMEs in the GMS and India

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $3,000,000 technical assistance to support the implementation of initiatives to accelerate trade and cross-border investment between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam—member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) program—and India. This ADB-administered technical assistance is financed by the United Kingdom Fund for Asia Regional Trade and Connectivity under the Regional Cooperation and Integration Financing Partnership Facility.

Phnom Penh skyline reflecting the city's rapid growth. The Central Market, built in 1937, is seen in the foreground. Photo by Lor Teng Huy - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

GMS Ministers to Gather in Phnom Penh for the 23rd GMS Ministerial Conference

The Ministers of the six member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) are set to lay the groundwork for the preparation for the 7th GMS Summit of Leaders. 

Hosted by the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the 23rd GMS Ministerial Conference (MC-23) will take place in Phnom Penh on 18 November 2019, with the theme "Greater Integration, Inclusivity and Sustainability in the GMS.”