Hanoi (VNA) - The Greater Mekong Sub-region is expected to receive 66 billion USD in investment to strengthen regionaleconomic cooperation in the next five years, said an Asian Development Bank(ADB) official.

The money was upped by 2 billion USD compared to what ministersof the six Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries - Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Thailand and China - agreed in the action plan framework for2018-2022 late last year.

It will more than triple the total amount of 21 billion USD mobilisedfor the region since the GMS development programme was first launched by theADB in 1992, Alfredo Perdiguero, Director of Regional Cooperation andOperations Coordination Division, Southeast Asia Department, told theVietnamese media on March 13.

The ambitious financing agreement is due to be signed by leadersof the regional members at the triennial 6th GMS Summit hostedthis March in Vietnam, in which hundreds of projects from different sectorswill be put on the agenda to open more opportunities in trade and investmentthrough closer regional collaboration.

“Some 7 billion USD will be mobilised from the ADB. We will alsobring in many other partners to contribute significant amounts, together withthe governments of the GMS countries,” Perdiguero said.

“I can say the GMS has been one of the most successfulprogrammes for regional cooperation and integration in Asia,” he said.

The development of extensive trans-national road networks whichformed the three main economic corridors, or trade routes, connecting themember countries was so far the greatest achievement of the programme, giventhat there was little transportation connectivity in the region back in 1992.

Vietnam, in particular, was the only country in the GMS thatparticipated in all three economic corridors, according to Perdiguero. Theyincluded the North-South corridor that connects Vietnam with China, theEast-West to link central Thua Thien-Hue province and Da Nang city with Laosand all the way to Thailand and Myanmar, and finally the Southern one bridgingHCM City with Phnom Penh and Bangkok.

But as the development of physical connections in the region,which set the foundation for the countries’ connectivity, was relativelycomplete, the GMS programme was seeking to expand the collaboration in severalother sectors.

Perdiguero said that they would range from power connectivity,agriculture to health and diseases, together with tourism and urban issues.

Fruitful cooperation in those fields would involve not only thegovernments but also a bigger contribution from the private sector,particularly in tourism and agriculture, he added.

“That’s why we are very happy that the (Vietnamese) PrimeMinister decided to organise the GMS Business Forum to bring in the energy, theideas, and the knowledge from the private sector,” Perdiguero said.

Vietnam will organise the first-ever GMS Business Forum on thesideline of the 6th GMS Summit, which is scheduled to take place inHanoi from March 29-31. The GMS cooperation was launched in 1992 as an initiative of the ADB. The GMS Cooperation Programme is the mostcomplete cooperation programme that involves Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand,Myanmar, and China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. The programme prioritisesinfrastructure development, energy, telecommunication, tourism,trade-investment, human resources, and environment.-VNA