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 have 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.
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
Asadullah Sumbal
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit Southeast Asia Department
Dorothea Lazaro
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Central and West Asia Department
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
Send inquiries to GMS Secretariat.
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.
This was the statement issued by the Joint Committee for the Cross-Border Transport Facilitation Agreement in Chiang Mai, Thailand on 16 December 2016.
The project will improve cross-border connectivity in the Greater Mekong Subregion. This will help create jobs and raise incomes for local residents. Photo: ADB.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (8 December 2016) – The Asian Development Bank has approved a $450 million investment program to promote cross-border economic activities between Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China and northern Viet Nam. The program will focus on developing the North-South Economic Corridor under the Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation Program.
This document provides a snapshot of the Greater Mekong Subregion's performance from 1992-2014, highlighting growth in output and merchandise trade, developments in information and communication technology, and trends in subregional integration.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic has built a new road with help from the Asian Development Bank, linking the tourist town of Luangprabang with the country’s border with Thailand.
The TTF newsletter highlights the ADB’s Transport and Trade Facilitation Activities in Southeast Asia.
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
