Countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion are working to make the movement of goods and services across borders faster, easier, cheaper, more compliant, and more inclusive.
Over the past decade, the Greater Mekong Subregion’s (GMS) road network has expanded by almost 200,000 kilometers, and overland road freight has almost doubled. Yet despite these advances, remaining barriers to trade and transport continue to inhibit the subregion’s full economic potential and the cost of cross-border land transport remains high.
With much of the hard infrastructure in place, there has been a greater focus in recent years on the rules, regulations, agreements, and other “software” to make the movement of goods and services across borders in the GMS faster, easier, cheaper, more compliant, and more inclusive.
The GMS Economic Cooperation Program Strategic Framework 2030 (GMS-2030) focus on trade facilitation will modernize customs and establish sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. It will also strengthen links to the private sector. GMS-2030 will support the development of e-commerce platforms in the subregion. By facilitating investment, the strategy will ease or eliminate investment flow constraints and create an integrated investment market. GMS-2030 was endorsed and adopted at the 7th GMS Summit of Leaders in September 2021. It aims to provide a new setting for the development of this subregion for the next decade.
The GMS Transport and Trade Facilitation Action Program is working to overcome existing barriers in order to link the subregion to the ASEAN Economic Community’s single market and production base, as well as other regional cooperation initiatives.
The program is helping to expand transport and traffic rights along the GMS Cross Border Transport Facilitation Agreement (CBTA). route network; simplify and modernize customs procedures and border management; and strengthen the capacity of sanitary and phytosanitary agencies in the subregion.
To facilitate progressive implementation of the CBTA, the GMS Transport Ministers as members of the CBTA Joint Committee agreed to an “Early Harvest” memorandum of understanding to allow the issuance and mutual recognition of GMS Road Transport Permits along the CBTA Protocol 1 route network and the border crossing points along these routes starting August 2018. This initiative was suspended with the closure of international borders during the Covid-19 health pandemic, but reinstated by the Ministers for a further three-year period at the Eighth CBTA Joint Committee meeting in December 2023.
Related
• ‘Early Harvest’ Implementation of the Cross-Border Transport Facilitation Agreement
• Joint Committee for the CBTA
• Statement of the Seventh Meeting of the Joint Committee for the CBTA (13 March 2019)
Focal Persons at the Asian Development Bank
Mohammad Nazrul Islam
Transport Sector Office
Sectors Group
Other Concerned Staff & Consultants
Antonio Ressano
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department
Lucia Martin Casanueva
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department/GMS Secretariat
Yuya Yamamoto
Regional Cooperation and Integration and Trade Divisiont
Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department
Other Concerned Staff & Consultants
Antonio Ressano
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department
Maria Mendez Martinez
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department/GMS Secretariat
Send inquiries to GMS Secretariat.
Regulatory and institutional reforms are needed to make infrastructure more attractive to private investors and generate a pipeline of bankable projects for public–private partnerships. Photo: ADB.
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Lao PDR Deputy Minister of Finance Thipphakone Chanthavongsa (seated, right) and ADB Country Director for the Lao PDR (seated, left) Yasushi Negishi signed the additional grant agreement in Vientiane. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Phouangparisak Pravongviengkham (standing, second from right) also attended the signing ceremony.
VIENTIANE, LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (20 November 2017) —The Asian Development Bank and the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic signed an agreement on 13 November for a $10 million grant as additional financing for a project that will enhance sanitary and phytosanitary capacity and improve food safety as well as plant and animal safety in the country.
Cargo trucks pass through the Second Lao–Thai Friendship Bridge over the Mekong river, which connects Savannakhet City with Mukdahan province. The bridge has helped improved the Lao PDR’s access to seaports in neighboring countries. Photo: ADB.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is operating its first dry port in Savannakhet province, where it is strategically positioned along the Greater Mekong Subregion East-West Economic Corridor, at the mid-point between the nearest Vietnamese seaport of Danang, and Thai ports in Bangkok and Laem Chabang.
The additional financing will scale up efforts to improve food safety and ensure plant and animal health, as part of an initiative to improve sanitary and phytosanitary capacity in the Lao PDR. Photo: ADB.
VIENTIANE, LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (4 October 2017) — The Asian Development Bank’s Board of Directors has approved a $10 million grant to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic as additional financing to scale up efforts to improve food safety and ensure plant and animal health, as part of an initiative to improve sanitary and phytosanitary capacity in the country.
The third edition of the Greater Mekong Subregion Statistics booklet includes two new chapters: the Energy Sector and Bilateral Trade.
Special economic zones have shown to be centers of growth and incubators of good practice. Photo: ADB.
Special economic zones combined with economic corridors are a potent force for prosperity in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
The Governors Forum promotes regular communication among provinces along the borders of the Mekong countries. Photo: ADB.
In Kunming, governors and key local government officials from provinces along the borders of the Greater Mekong Subregion came together on 10 June 2017 to discuss further cooperation.
The group visited a shoe factory at the Bavet Industrial Park. Photo: ADB Cambodia Resident Mission.
Japan’s Ambassador to Cambodia Hidehisa Horinouchi and Asian Development Bank Country Director Samiuela Tukuafu recently joined Cambodia’s Minister Attached to the Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, Sok Chenda Sophea, on a visit to the Bavet Industrial Park near the border with Viet Nam.
The economic corridors of the Greater Mekong Subregion are not just roads or highways, but they encompass a variety of economic activities that run parallel to main transport routes. Photo: ADB.
Sometimes misunderstood as highway projects, the concept of economic corridors can be complex and confusing. Though not simple, they are powerful tools for reducing poverty and increasing economic growth.
The road project is expected to improve travel between Yangon (in photo), Myanmar’s largest city, and Mae Sot in western Thailand. Photo credit: ADB.
The Myanmar government recently approved a project that will ensure the completion of the Greater Mekong Subregion East-West Economic Corridor, which stretches from Danang, Viet Nam to Yangon, Myanmar.
Greater Mekong Subregion Secretariat
Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division,
Southeast Asia Department, Asian Development Bank
Address: 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550, Metro Manila, Philippines
Telephone: +63 2 8632 4444 Fax: +63 2 8636 2226