Mekong Currents
Greater Mekong Sub-region, Lancang -Mekong Cooperation sets new benchmarks for modernisation, About the Mekong - U.S. Partnership
Greater Mekong Sub-region
By WWF
The Greater Mekong region holds irreplaceable riches—ranging from rare wildlife in spectacular natural landscapes to communities with distinct cultural heritages. The vast region spans six countries: China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Its 200 million acres—the combined size of Texas and Arkansas—contain some of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world.
This is the ‘rice bowl’ of Asia and at its heart lays the Mekong River. Winding almost 3,000 miles from the Tibetan plateau down to the South China Sea, the Mekong River boasts the world's largest inland fishery. It accounts for up to 25 percent of the global freshwater catch and provides livelihoods for tens of millions of people. It is second only to the Amazon River in terms of fish biodiversity. At least 1,200 freshwater species swim the waters of this mighty river including the last remaining populations of the Irrawaddy dolphin, giant freshwater stingray which can weigh up to 1,300 pounds, and the Mekong giant catfish.
Unprecedented social and economic development in the Greater Mekong makes conservation work here especially urgent and significant. The most pressing threats are hydropower development, climate change, illegal wildlife trade and habitat loss.
The Greater Mekong has no fewer than 20,000 species of plants, 1,200 bird species, 800 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 430 mammal species. Over 1300 new species have been catalogued since 1997. Forest landscapes—spanning an area roughly the size of France—are the largest combined tiger habitat in the world and are priority areas for WWF’s tiger conservation work.
People have lived in the Greater Mekong region for more than 4,000 years. Today, these lands are home to more than 300 million people from nearly 100 distinct ethnic groups. Around 80 percent of the population depends on healthy natural systems such as rivers, forests and wetlands for food security, livelihoods and culture. Few places on Earth demonstrate so dramatically the fundamental link between human and ecosystem well being. This is why people are central to our conservation strategies.
Read more here.
Lancang-Mekong Cooperation sets new benchmarks for modernisation
By Khmer Times
On December 25, a five-year plan of action (2023-2027) to deepen economic and social cooperation was jointly endorsed by leaders of six Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) states including China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam at the fourth LMC Leaders’ Meeting, virtually held under the theme “Join Hands on the Building of a Community of Shared Future and Modernization.” The leaders also agreed to boost progress towards the Lancang-Mekong Economic Development Belt (LMEDB) at the meeting.
Launched in 2016, the LMC mechanism has served as a major avenue to improve livelihoods and promote integrated development between all six countries. Cross-border investments have continued to surge along the Lancang-Mekong River Basin, while technology-driven water resource management generates momentum for basin-wide governance of the Mekong.
The fourth leaders’ meeting puts the spotlight on deepening integrated development through significant cross-border growth imperatives. These span trade, production capacity, and agricultural projects. Beijing’s decision to introduce a specially designated loan for LMC’s common development is particularly noteworthy. The move builds on a track record of flexible financing to support production and manufacturing capacities across partner states, and over a dozen infrastructure and industry projects have benefitted from this consistency.
As a result, the common development loan stands to bridge progress disparities across key priority areas spanning connectivity, cross-border economy, water resources, agriculture, and poverty reduction. The recent success of the “Lancang-Mekong Space Cooperation Plan” and “Water Resources Cooperation” outcomes has reinforced the importance of flexible financing in accelerating LMC’s artificial intelligence pivot. Leaders are keen to support smart technologies and develop satellites that bring their collective agricultural and resource protection needs to the forefront.
Another major takeaway was the countries’ resolve to boost the “people-centered development” of the Lancang-Mekong Economic Development Belt. In recent years, trade and economic exchanges have been central to consolidating the LMEDB and delivering its tangible benefits to the people. For instance, there has been a surge in hard infrastructure projects including rail-road connectivity, airports, power grids, and green energy, helping Lancang-Mekong countries bolster local employment and enter a network of increasingly interconnected regional economies.
On the trade front, Beijing’s aggregate volume with Mekong partners exceeded $415 billion last year, doubling in volume compared to seven years ago. All this is accompanied by a diverse range of cross-border investments focused in the Lancang-Mekong region, now the focus of a major “agricultural modernization demonstration zone” that can propel their resource-rich agricultural economy to its true potential.
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Mekong - U.S. Partnership
By Mekong - U.S. partnership
The Mekong-U.S. Partnership promotes the stability, peace, prosperity, and sustainable development of the Mekong sub-region through cooperation among the Mekong partner countries and the United States. It further reinforces the strong and longstanding relationship among the United States, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The Partnership builds upon 11 years of cooperation and progress through the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) to expand collaboration in the face of new challenges and opportunities. The Partnership supports the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision and is an integral part of support and cooperation between the United States and ASEAN.
The Partnership has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the Mekong region and has been instrumental in providing poverty-reducing training and education to develop regional human capital resources. The United States has established itself as a committed partner in addressing trans-boundary challenges faced by the Mekong region and has spurred improved governance, enhanced natural resources management capacity, promoted sustainable infrastructure, strengthened health security, expanded energy security, supported higher quality education, and encouraged women’s entrepreneurship. We have expanded the scope of cooperation under the Partnership to include transboundary water and natural resources management, non-traditional security, and energy and other infrastructure as part of our economic connectivity cooperation.
The Mekong-U.S. Partnership has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the Mekong region, and has been instrumental in providing poverty-reducing training and education to develop human capital resources.
The main goals of the Mekong-U.S. Partnership are:
To improve transparency, good governance, connectivity, and sustainable development in the region through implementing regional capacity-building activities, fostering regional policy dialogues, and exchanging expertise and best practices.
To strengthen regional connectivity by building connections among institutions, the public and private sectors, and people within the Mekong Region and with the United States.
To work with the countries of the Mekong region and international partners to identify and implement solutions for key regional challenges.
The broad range of U.S programming reorganized in 2020 with the launch of the Mekong-U.S. Partnership:
Mekong-U.S. Partnership (2020- ): The Mekong-U.S. Partnership builds on the success of the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) by flexibly expanding cooperation and programming to address emerging challenges, including economic connectivity, human capital development, transboundary water and natural resources management, and non-traditional security, including collaboration on emerging threats such as health security, pandemic response, countering transnational crime, cyber security, and countering trafficking in people, drugs, and wildlife. The Mekong-U.S. Partnership is guided by principles that are aligned with those enshrined in the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and the U.S. Indo-Pacific vision, including, equality, sustainable development, economic growth, and effective, consensus-based, and results-orientated management systems. The Partnership also seeks to promote complementarity with ACMECS, ASEAN, and other Mekong development partners and cooperation mechanisms in line with these principles.
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