Nay Pyi Taw September 9
The 7th Greater Mekong Sub-region Summit was held this morning through Video Confe-rencing. State Administration Council Chairman Prime Minister of the Provisional Govern-ment of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing delivered an address at the summit.
Also present were prime ministers of other Greater Mekong Subregion countries, which are, Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Thailand and Vietnam, ministers and senior officials of the Greater Mekong Subregion countries, the president of Asian Develop-ment Bank, representatives of the partners of the Greater Mek-ong Subregion and represen-tatives of the private sector.
A video clip on the accomplish-ments of the Greater Mekong Subregion countries was shown at the opening ceremony of the summit. Prime Minister Mr.Samdech Hun Sen of the host Cambodia delivered the open-ing address. Then leaders of the Greater Mekong Subregion countries and ADB president gave speeches.
In his speech, the Senior Ge-neral honored GMS program for the significant successes it achieved in promoting regional cooperation within a period of nearly three years that started in 1992. He said the theme of the summit “GMS: Renewed Strength to Face the Challenges of the New Decade” is suitable most with the current period for GMS. In the sector-wise project implementation task under GMS strategic framework, Myanmar took part in establishing the Greater Mekong Railways Association – GM-RA and signed the Cross-bor-der Transport Facilitation Agre-ement-CBTA and protocols.
Economic corridors that are being implemented under GMS program for regional production, transport and progress are of vital importance. Of them, the east-west economic corridor is much important for Myanmar. The corridor linking Vietnam (Da Nang) and Yangon (Thilawa) strengthens contacts among Greater Mekong Subregion countries and fur-ther facilitates trade.
The Senior General welcomed the Greater Mekong Subre-gion Program Long-Term Str-ategic Framework 2030 that will be issued by the Summit today as it will serve as the road map of the future GMS cooperation program. At present, a lot of changes are oc-curring in many countries including the GMS region due to the spread of COVID-19, which has an impact on health, economic and social impacts. The availability of COVID-19 vaccines, the post-COVID-19 economic recovery and the challenges on financial and technological and the challenges on the financial and techno-logical resources and untraditional challenges must be addressed in cooperation. In res-ponse to the COVID-19 and recovery plan, Myanmar has welcomed the GMS recovery plan for the 2021-23 and the country has decided to remedy the effects of the pandemic as many ways as possible and simultaneously.
Despite the various challen-ges, we will try to overcome the third wave of the pandemic and efforts are being made to coverage of vaccination over 50 percent of the country at the end of this year.
In doing so, we would like to thank the friendly nations and partner nations and despite the challenge to overcome the containment of the pandemic, the provision of the necessary medical supplies and equipment by special flights under the ar-rangement of Prime Minister of Cambodia Mr.Samdech Hun Sen and the through the border by Thailand and China.
Due to significant malprac-tices during the election held on 8 November and attempt to convene the parliament, the emergency had been declared in accordance with the Constitution of Myanmar 2008 and the state responsibilities have been assumed by the SAC for more than 7 months. In doing so, the council has been exert-ing efforts on not to deviate the country from the democra-tic path by adopting five future tasks including ‘‘reforming the union election commission by reviewing the voters lists and taking other necessary meas-ures in accordance with the law.” The newly formed union election has discovered 11.3 million of of illegal votes and we are determined to implement the tasks set out in our future plans.
Myanmar accepted the proposal to appoint Brunei Minister of Foreign Affairs II H.E. Dato Erywan Pehin Yusof as the special envoy of the ASEAN Chairman to continue implementation of the five-point consensus adopted at the ASEAN Leaders Meeting for the Myanmar affairs and will undertake further cooperation in accord with the frameworks of the five-point consensus of the ASEAN Leaders Meeting, that of the five-point road map of the State Administration Council and that of ASEAN. With regard to the international relations, plans are underway to implement the existing bilateral agreements of two countries and international commitments.
We will further prioritize pe-ace, sustainable development and all participation through our concerted efforts for bene-fiting all regional peoples. He-nce, Myanmar will continue im-plementation of the agreements in regional and sub-regional economic integration including ASEAN, GMS and regional multiple economic cooperation.
Myanmar has secured the remarkable progress as the result of cooperation during the period of COVID-19 pandemic but still faces challenges in handling the trade, finance and information network measures in the sub-region and enhance-ment of competitiveness and more improvement of the com-munity. To be able to overcome them, it is necessary to empha-size cooperation adhering to the firmed procedures.
He expressed his firm believe that the strategy and actin plans to be adopted at the summit would overcome the challenges of new decade to build the more compact and strong commuty.
Next, Cambodian GMS Affairs Minister, Minister attached to the Prime Minister and Secretary-General of the Council for the Development of Cambodia Mr. Sok Chenda Sophea explain-ed the successful results of the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Prime Minister of Cambodia Mr Hun Sen gave a concluding remark.
Then, the Heads of State approved the GMS Economic Co-operation Programme Strategic Framework 2030 (GMS-2030), the GMS COVID-19 Response and Recovery Plan 2021-2023 and the Joint Declaration of the Summit, and the summit successfully came to a close.
Also present at the Summit together with the Chairman of the State Administration Council were Union Minister for Foreign Affairs U Wunna Maung Lwin, Union Minister for Investment and Foreign Economic Relations U Aung Naing Oo, Union Minister for International Relations U Ko Ko Hlaing and officials of the Office of the State Administration Council and the Ministry of Invest-ment and Foreign Economic Relations together with senior officers from the relevant mini-stries concerning the work committee for GMS cooperation and private representatives who joined the summit through online.
The Greater Mekong Subregion – GMS Economic Coopera-tion Program launched in 1992 is a regional cooperation programme which has been succ-essfully standing for about three decades. According to the GMS programme, six countries from the Greater Mekong Sub-region alphabetically host the summit once three years as of 2002 as the 10th anniversary of the GMS. Myanmar hosted the fourth GMS Summit in Nay Pyi Taw on 19 and 20 December 2011. The summits pledged to accomplish the visions related to the development of the sub-region in the future and Heads of State declared the important joint declarations. Today’s 7th GMS Summit approved the GMS Economic Cooperation Programme Strategic Frame-work 2030 (GMS-2030), the GMS COVID-19 Response and Recovery Plan 2021-2023 and the Joint Declaration of the Summit.
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