Myanmar conference due to explore ways to boost infrastructure
Senior government officials and ministers from China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic will be meeting with members of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Myanmar tomorrow to discuss ways of boosting infrastructure investment and development in the region.
The six countries, which are collectively referred to as the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) because they all share the Mekong River, will come together at the 20th GMS Ministerial Conference in Myanmar’s capital of Naypyidaw.
This year’s conference comes ahead of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 which starts on 25 September and will see more than 150 world leaders come together to formally commit to 17 sustainable development goals for the next 15 years.
The event, ADB vice-president Stephen Groff said, is “particularly noteworthy” because it takes place just before this “emerging global commitment to advance the sustainable development agenda in both developed and developing countries.”
The theme of the conference will be: ‘Taking Action for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in the GMS’.
The gathering opens with a senior officials’ meeting and a development partners’ meeting.
The formal ministerial meeting takes place the next day, to be followed by a closed-door ministerial retreat in the afternoon.
Senior provincial government officials, and development partners from the six GMS countries, are also expected to attend.
Discussions will focus on issues, challenges and opportunities in the context of the GMS cooperation programme and key regional and global sustainability goals.
About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
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