Ministers from the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) called Tuesday for
multi-sectoral investments for urban development, connecting remote areas with
growth centres and extending existing corridors into Myanmar.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
said the call was made in a joint statement by ministers attending a regional
conference in the southern Chinese city of Nanning.
"The strategic framework has
to be translated into a plan of action. It has to be supported by a well-considered
investment programme," said Stephen Groff, the ADB vice president of
operations for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Set up 20 years ago as an ADB
initiative, the GMS comprises Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and
Vietnam. The ADB said the two-day meeting in Nanning was also attended by
Australia, Japan and the United States along with the International
Organisation for Migration, the Mekong River Commission and the UN Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
"A pipeline of projects
should take shape in early 2013, with a particular focus on boosting the growth
potential of towns and cities with basic infrastructure," an ADB statement
said.
The ADB said a preliminary list
of projects amounting to at least US$9 billion would increase
"substantially" as a regional investment framework is finalised in
first quarter of 2013. The framework will be subject to further consultations
between and among GMS countries and development partners before being
finalised.
The joint statement said future
projects should support an integrated GMS energy sector, starting with priority
transmission investments in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
"Strengthening their
respective national grids would serve as a building block to a regional power
grid," the ADB said.
The bank said ministers also
endorsed recent initiatives including a planned Regional Power Coordination
Center, action plans for human resources development, HIV reduction, extension
of agriculture support and a Greater Mekong Railway Association. A GMS Environment
Atlas was also launched at the meeting, it said.
Infrastructure targeted for
investment includes water and sanitation, transport, power, telecommunications,
food handling, protecting natural resources and scaling up environmentally
responsible practices.
The GMS programme has invested
US$15 billion in roads, airports and railways, telecommunications, energy,
urban development, tourism, environmental protection and the prevention of
communicable diseases since 1992.
News Desk
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