The Lao People’s Democratic Republic can maximize the potential benefits from the Greater Mekong Subregion’s economic corridors through its national policies, capacities, and implementation arrangements.

This issue of the Journal of Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Development Studies features five articles of subregional importance spanning the subjects of free trade areas, tourism, and human trafficking.

With increasing fuel demand projected for the Greater Mekong Subregion, biofuels could make a significant contribution to offsetting oil demand and to increased agricultural and rural incomes.

This issue of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Journal of Development Studies features the outputs of four research projects funded by grants under the Research Program of the Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management (PPP).

Trade in food and other agricultural products is increasingly important across East and Southeast Asia, where high-income Asian economies have driven significant agricultural expansion, and the momentous growth of the People's Republic of China (PRC) promises more stimulus to agrofood activity in the region. The PRC is expected to become a net importer of agrofood in the coming decades, which will have significant implications within the region.

In this issue of the Journal of Greater Mekong Subregion Development Studies, we feature five articles that concern some of the more pressing issues of cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) - trade facilitation and trade logistics, the trade impact of cross-border transport infrastructure, tourism corridor development, and biofuels and rural renewable energy. The diversity of the topics tackled in this volume reflects the multifaceted challenges of regional cooperation.

This issue of the Journal focuses on the seminal research undertaken by Social Research Institute of Chiang Mai University (SRI-CMU) on the question: How does community-based tourism (CBT) impact on poverty? Five research papers were selected from the SRI-CMU project. The overview article, Tourism: Blessings for All?, by Mingsarn Kaosa-ard, discusses the returns from tourism and how these returns are being shared from a national perspective. The benefits and the potential negative impacts of tourism are weighed.

The fledgling Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Journal for Development Studies, published under the auspices of the Phnom Penh Plan (PPP) for Development Management, moves a step ahead with the second issue. In what might be considered as "ascending steps," GMS scholarship is moving forward, slowly but surely. The PPP's commitment is to ensure that we continue to make strides towards our goal of bridging the gap between research and capacity building and to propagate the gospel of balanced socioeconomic development in the GMS.

This is the inaugural issue of the Journal of Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Development Studies. It is published under the auspices of the Phnom Penh Plan (PPP) for Development Management, a recent capacity building initiative of GMS countries supported by the Asian Development Bank and the New Zealand Agency for International Development. Enhancing skills and knowledge of middle and senior GMS civil servants is at the heart of the PPP. The journal seeks to complement this effort by promoting a better understanding of GMS development issues.