VIENTIANE, LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (7 September 2018) — The Asian Development Bank and the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic signed an agreement for a $40.5 million grant for the Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project that will help farmers and agribusinesses develop sustainable and climate-smart agriculture value chains in the country.

The Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project is helping transform transport corridors in the Greater Mekong Subregion into economic corridors by developing upstream and downstream linkages in agribusiness supply chains in a climate-friendly manner.

The Twenty-Second Meeting of the GMS Subregional Transport Forum (STF-22) was held in Mandalay, Myanmar on 21–22 June 2018.

A pilot project is introducing the use of barcodes to track the quality and safety of food in the Greater Mekong Subregion from “farm to shelf, then table.”

The Greater Mekong Subregion Tourism Working Group held its 41^st meeting in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand on 25 June 2018, back-to-back with the Mekong Tourism Forum 2018 on 26–29 June.

The Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Agriculture held its 15^th meeting on 29–30 May 2018 in Pu’er, Yunnan Province in the People’s Republic of China.

BEIJING, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (29 August 2018) — Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao and People’s Republic of China Minister of Finance and ADB Governor Liu Kun met during Mr. Nakao’s 2-day visit to the PRC, in which he reaffirmed ADB’s support for the country’s development priorities.  

Disruptive technologies, such as Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, have the potential to bring about rapid, self-sustained economic growth for countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion.