On June 11, the 7th Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Corridors Forum was held in Kunming, Yunnan. Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng attended the opening ceremony and made a speech.
Gao said that strengthening the economic, trade and investment cooperation of the Greater Mekong Subregion and promoting the sustainable development accord with the common interests of the six countries alongside, and are also the common wishes of the people of the six countries.
Gao pointed out that, since the establishment of the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Corridors Forum in 2008, China has actively participated in the economic corridors cooperation and has gained practical achievements in several sectors. In terms of infrastructure construction, China participated in and supported the infrastructure construction like the Kunming - Bangkok Road, the Mekong River Bridge, the subregion information superhighway, the channel improvement of the upstream of Mekong River, the pan-Asia railway, and invested to build the cross-border electricity transaction network covering Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. In terms of trade and investment, China has actively expanded import from the countries of the subregion through China-ASEAN FTA and Asia-Pacific Countries Trade Agreement. At the same time, the Chinese government encouraged the Chinese enterprises to “go out”, to build the economic cooperation parks with related countries. In terms of personnel training, China has provided training to 12,000 personnel of the subregion countries up to the end of 2014. And in 2015, China plans to provide training in China for 1,000 people from the subregion on custom clearance facilitation, border economic cooperation area and cross-border e-commerce cooperation.
Gao Stressed that, according to the requirements put forward by the 5th Leaders Meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion in 2014, we should make the Economic Corridors Forum the booster, coordinator and supervisor of the construction of the subregion economic corridors, and combine the construction of the economic corridors with the actual demands of the countries, combine the “hardware” construction of the infrastructure with the “software” construction of trade and investment, and combine the regional planning with bilateral cooperation, so as to practically play the active role of the economic corridors in promoting regional economic development.
