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The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) comprises Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Provinces in the People's Republic of China, covering a land area of some 2.3 million square kilometers.
According to the Asian Development Bank, the combined population of the GMS region's five countries and two provinces is about 326 million, representing more than 70 different ethnic and linguistic groups.
Mekong Region countries are at various levels of economic development, with diverse resources that are unevenly distributed. Almost 70 percent of the GMS's population is dependent on local resources, comprising predominantly agricultural economies.
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Discrepancies in other indicators such as natural resources including energy (water, oil, gas, hydropower) and per capita income are also noticed. Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are classified as the least developed countries, as compared to other neighbors in the region. Regardless of enormous natural resources, Mekong region countries remained underdeveloped due to (i) ideological conflicts and wars across the countries, (ii) governments' national agendas, which cannot be separated from the political realities of the time, and (iii) funders own agendas, which are obvious.
In the early 1990s, Japan made a key policy decision to provide development assistance to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (Indochinese Peninsula) under the Mekong-Japan Cooperation Program. In 1992, the Asian Development Bank's initiative, the GMS, was created. The GMS programs promote subregional economic cooperation (including the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province of China) in all sectors, including transport, energy, agriculture, environment, trade, investment, tourism and telecommunications.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) was formed in 1995 for the sustainable development of the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) countries. Australia is a major donor to the MRC. Since 1999, China has also been pursuing active diplomacy in Southeast Asia in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and strengthening economic ties with these countries in particular. In November 2000, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) was established in Vientiane, Lao PDR (Vientiane Declaration), to promote cooperation between India and Mekong countries in the tourism, culture, education and transportation sectors.
The biggest donor to Cambodia, Lao, and Vietnam is Japan, with an average of more than $1.1 billion a year over the last five years, followed by the World Bank with $900 million, ADB with $400 million and France with slightly more than $200 million _ along with Germany, Australia, Korea, all with more than $100 million per year. Switzerland is a relatively small donor to all three countries; in the Lao PDR, however, Switzerland has become the fifth-largest bilateral donor.
In recent years, some major regional cooperation and integration initiatives begun by the international agencies/governments in this region (excluding China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces) are the Mekong-Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), initiatives from Korea, U.S. and Australia, as well as South-South initiatives within the region. The Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) program was initiated and financed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) in 2009. Recently, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) renewed its development policy commitment for the period of 2013-2017 in the Mekong region countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam) in the three domains of cooperation such as local governance and citizen participation, agriculture and food security, and employment and vocational education.
In October 2011, Korea proposed the "Mekong-Republic of Korea Comprehensive Partnership for Mutual Prosperity," also known as the "Han River Declaration," for the development of the Mekong region in specific areas like transportation, water resources, capacity building on logistics, energy and agricultural value chains. The Han River Declaration envisages the friendship and cooperation between the Mekong region countries and South Korea in a wide range of areas for mutual prosperity. The Korean government and private sector are involved together in various projects in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar which may help enhance Korea's potential capacity with respect to development.
Clear and transparent policies, coupled with institutions and organizations development strategies may be useful in order to succeed in the long-term in the Mekong Delta. Learning from each other and working together could enable both sides to help the Mekong region grow sustainably.
The author is an associate professor of physics at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. He is involved in research on clean and sustainable energy technology. He can be reached at rbpode@khu.ac.kr.
