|
Speeches on November 16
and 17 at CLV, CLMV and ACMECS Summits
|CLV
Summit Opening Speech | CLMV Opening Speech | CLMV
Cooperation | 4th ACMECS Summit Opening Speech | ACMECS Future Cooperation Remarks | Press Statement |
Opening Speech at the 6th CLV Summit
Phnom
Penh, 16th November 2010
H.E. Mr.
Bouasone Bouphavanh, PM of the Lao PDR,
H.E. Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung,
PM of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam,
Excellencies, Ladies and
Gentlemen!
First of all, let me extend my warmest welcome to Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen to this 6th CLV Summit held in the capital city of Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia. I hope our
meeting today will not only further advance the cooperation among our
three CLV countries, but also contribute to the development and
prosperity of our region.
We meet today to review the
progress made since the last Summit and to adopt a newly revised Master Plan 2010-2020 in order to fast track our cooperation
activities in our CLV Development Triangle Area. The
strengthening of cooperation is truly crucial in the regional and global
context after the recent global financial crisis.
I would like to highly appreciate
the achievements made, especially in the area of trade and investment
promotion through the organization of related trade fairs and
conferences, as well as related measures such as the simplification of
export procedures and business registration processes and the granting
of tax incentives in order to boost private business and investment in
the region.
In this regard, I would like to
note with satisfaction that the signing by the CLV Joint Coordination
Committee of the amended MOU toward the Establishment of Special
Preferential Policies for the CLV Development Triangle Area, as
well as the effective consultations and cooperative efforts made by the
CLV Joint Coordination Committee in successfully completing this newly
revised Master Plan to be submitted to the Summit
for endorsement.
However, I believe that we must do
our utmost to accelerate the implementation before schedules of all
bilateral and multilateral agreements in the Development Triangle Area
by putting them on a faster track list than the original schedule,
particularly the Cross Border Transport Agreement (CBTA), the ASEAN
Economic Blueprint, the Bilateral Trade Agreements, the ACMECS Rice
Cooperation and Contract Farming Projects and the ASEAN Single Window.
In order to achieve our vision of
a harmonious and prosperous Development Triangle Area by the year 2020
in the context that our CLV countries are facing the shortages of
financial resources for the implementation of the many programs and
projects under the Master Plan 2010-2020, I believe that, firstly, we
should commit to primarily shortlisting a number of prioritized projects
from our cooperation sectors, such as infrastructure, trade and
investment, social development and cultural conservation, agro-industry,
tourism, and environment.
Since financing remains a big
challenge for all of us, I would suggest that we address this issue by
initiating the establishment of a CLV Fund to mobilize
financial resources to fund these projects. Indeed, the Government of
Japan has already provided a USD 20 million grant for the
development of the Triangle Area in order ensure concrete and fruitful
outcome of this cooperation. But it is still not adequate. Thus, we
should continue to engage Japan and other development partners in order
to mobilize more financial resources for the CLV Fund. This will be used
to finance projects in our Development Triangle Area. One of the
options is that we can propose to Japan to consider transferring some
funds in the framework of Mekong-Japan Cooperation Fund to the CLV
Fund.
Finally, I believe that the rich endowment in natural resources, more
cohesive cooperation among our respective CLV members, along with the
support by our development partners, would provide us with the
opportunities to realize our CLV objectives in promoting growth,
employment and income generation that will tremendously improve the
welfare of our peoples in the CLV countries. This will also
significantly contribute to the joint efforts to promote regional
integration, especially in building the ASEAN Community.
I wish our
deliberation a great success and may I now declare the opening of the 6th CLV Summit! Thank you for your attention!
EndItem
Opening Speech at the 5th CLMV Summit
Phnom Penh, 16th November 2010
H.E. Mr. Bouasone BOUPHAVANH, PM of the Lao PDR
H.E. Mr. Thein Sein, PM of the Union of
Myanmar
H.E. Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung, PM of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
H.E.Mr. Surin Pitsuwan,
ASEAN Secretary General
Distinguished Delegates of the LMV
countries
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, on
behalf of the Royal Government and People of Cambodia, I would like to
express my warmest welcome and heart-felt thanks to the Heads of CLMV
Governments and their delegation for their kind participation at this
August Summit in Phnom Penh. Cambodia is very honored and fortunate
indeed to host the meeting, in particular while our region has just
recovered from the global economic and financial crisis.
This Fifth Summit
is of great significance. It offers us opportunity to reaffirm our
determination to deepen the traditional relations between our people and
country based on our long friendship, good neighborliness and mutual
benefits by promoting the implementation of the goals set in the 2004
Vientiane Declaration.
The
Summit is very timely as ASEAN is accelerating the process of ASEAN
Community building by 2015. Conceptually, the CLMV cooperation was
incepted with the objectives of strengthening and accelerating the
integration of the four countries with the other six ASEAN members in
order to narrow development gap. There were concerns from the early
stage about duplication and proliferation of sub-regional frameworks as
there are many sub-regional frameworks intended to facilitate
integration of the CLMV countries aiming at narrowing development gap
such as, the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS), the ASEAN Mekong Basin
Development Cooperation (AMBDC), the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI),
Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), the
CLV Development Triangles, the Mekong River Commission (MRC), the East
West Corridor, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) etc.
However, we have
witnessed that since the first CLMV Summit in Vientiane, the CLMV
cooperation has evolved from the designing of cooperation mechanism into
action plans in 9 areas of cooperation namely, coordination of economic
integration policies, trade and investment facilitation and promotion,
agriculture, industry and energy, transport, information and
communication strategy (ICT), tourism, human resource development and
health care. In addition, we successfully adopted the revised CLMV Plan
of Action at the third CLMV Summit in Cebu, the Philippines and adopted
58 projects at the Fourth CLMV Summit in Hanoi in 2008. Therefore, we
were able to ensure that there was no duplication of action plans, but
it enhances synergy with other cooperation frameworks, especially the
ACMECS cooperation. The prioritization of the projects for
implementation, both short and medium term, will enhance CLMV
cooperation to bring about a much better and fruitful results.
At present, we
have deepened our cooperation in all sectors. In this regard, taking
this opportunity, I would like to commend the successful conclusion of
the CLMV Cultural Ministers’ Meeting in January 2010 in Myanmar and the
first CLMV Economic Ministers’ Meeting in August this year in Danang,
Vietnam.
We should incorporate the CLMV
infrastructure projects into the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity that
the ASEAN Leaders adopted at the recent ASEAN Summit in Hanoi, because
the CLMV development projects will not only serve the objectives of
narrowing development gaps in Mekong sub-region, but also will
definitely contribute to the tremendous efforts to realize ASEAN
Community by 2015. Since financing remains a key challenge for CLMV, the
incorporation of CLMV’s projects into the Master Plan of ASEAN
connectivity is part of our innovative and creative mechanism to engage
ASEAN Dialogue Partners and other development partners to participate in
projects of their best interest.
Narrowing the development gap is
one of the key components of ASEAN Community roadmap. To this end, CLMV
has to enhance cooperation in building and implementing projects under
the 2nd IAI Work Plan framework and enhance cooperation with
regional and international institution such as the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
and Dialogue Partners to implement necessary studies and assessment to
identify common challenges and necessary measures to promote trade and
investment among CLMV countries including trade facilitation and the
establishment of border markets.
Finally, I can conclude that we have taken
a major step forward with confidence in order to strengthen our CLMV
cooperation to serve the interests of our countries and peoples. The
next priority is to push our activities forward toward actual
implementation to achieve concrete results in the near future. Let us
not wait for the completion and perfection of the entire package. Small
victories, gained early, will pave our common road to overall good
results over the long haul.
In this sense, I wish our summit a
successful and fruitful discussion for the high benefit to our people
and nations.
EndItem
"Reviewing Cooperation Progress and Future
Directions for CLMV Cooperation"
at the 5th CLMV Summit
Phnom
Penh, 16th November 2010
- Excellencies, Heads of the Government
of CLMV Countries
- Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This Fifth Summit is an opportunity for us as the Leaders
of CLMV countries to provide further guidance on the implementation of
the revised action plan and the projects adopted at the 4th Summit in Hanoi in 2008 and set future direction for our joint
cooperation.
I am pleased that our officials eventually were able to
ensure that there is no duplication of CLMV action plan with other
cooperation mechanisms particularly at the project levels. We have
totally 58 projects in which 10 projects submitted by Cambodia, 3
projects by Laos, 26 projects by Myanmar and 19 projects by Vietnam.
However, the tasks ahead of us are not just to work out innovative and
creative mechanism but also to seek out sources of financing in order to
translate the projects into actual implementation.
Cambodia highly appreciates and thanks Vietnam for
providing scholarship to train students of CLM member countries. This
is a part of fruitful cooperation in HRD. Cambodia has given high
priority to promote trade and investment with member countries,
including the establishment of border markets and border trade
activities. Trade fair is also a practical and easy starting project
which will help increase trade and investment flows among the CLMV
countries and between CLMV countries and countries in the region and
around the world. In this regard, I sincerely thank Vietnam for
successfully hosting the 1st CLMV Economic Ministers’
Meeting.
Cooperation in transport is also indispensable for all
CLMV countries that want to make the best use of economic corridors
across the CLMV countries such as the East-West Economic Corridor,
the Southern Economic Corridor under the GMS. In this regard, I would like to reiterate that Cambodia
gives a high priority to the construction of a railway link that
connects Cambodia to Vietnam from Bat Deng to Loc Ninh under the
Singapore-Kunming Rail Link project, and we have taken necessary
measures to seek support from relevant partners.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!
As financing remains a key challenge for
all of us to move CLMV cooperation forward, I would like to share with
you my humble thoughts as follows:
Firstly, we should expedite the implementation of CLMV projects
supported by Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), in order to seek
funding for new projects.
Secondly, we should enhance cooperation with ASEAN Secretariat and its dialogue
partners to seek financing for those projects that are under the IAI
framework.
Thirdly,
we will submit 16 prioritized projects chosen by each CLMV countries to
seek support from the development partners.
Fourthly, we should encourage participation of the private sector in executing those
projects;
Another
important point in promoting implementation of this cooperation is a
consideration on the necessity of setting up a monitoring mechanism to
oversee the implementation of action plan and its projects that we have
put forward. We should task our SOM Officials to regularly meet and
update the Leaders on the implementation progress of CLMV project.
EndItem.
Opening Speech at the 4th ACMECS Summit
Phnom
Penh, Peace Palace, 17th November 2010
- H.E.
Mr. Bouasone BOUPHAVANH, PM of the Lao PDR
- H.E. Mr. Thein Sein, PM of the Union
of Myanmar
- H.E. Mr. Abhisit
Vejjajiva,
PM of the Kingdom of Thailand
- H.E.
Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung, PM of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
- H.E Mr. Surin Pitsuwan,
ASEAN Secretary General
-
Distinguished Delegates of the ACMECS countries
- Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
This is an auspicious day for the Kingdom of Cambodia to host the 4th ACMECS Summit. On
behalf of the Royal Government and people of Cambodia, I would like to
extend my warmest welcome and heart-felt thanks to the Heads of ACMECS Governments and delegations for your participation in this august Summit
in Phnom Penh held in the newly built «Peace
Palace».
Allow
me to recall briefly the history of our ACMECS cooperation, before casting an eye on to the future. There is no doubt
that we have come a long way since the first Summit in Bagan in 2003,
then the second Summit in Bangkok in 2005, and the third Summit in Hanoi
in 2008. Initially, there were only four members in the ACMECS cooperation, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Later on
Vietnam was admitted in November 2004 at the ACMECS Ministerial Retreat in Krabi, Thailand, and became the fifth member.
The Bagan Declaration adopted at the fist Summit spells
out five priority areas of cooperation under ACMECS namely, (i) trade and investment facilitation; (ii) agricultural and
industrial cooperation; (iii) transport linkages; (iv) tourism
cooperation; and (v) human resources development. In 2006, health sector
was added as a new sector of cooperation. Afterwards, agriculture and
industrial cooperation was split into two separate sectors of
cooperation in order to reflect the increased importance of each sector.
Later on at the Summit held in Hanoi, we agreed to add environment as
the 8th sector of cooperation in order to address the issues
related to the threat to the environment.
This enlargement well underlines how all member countries
have attached importance to this shared sub-regional economic
cooperation strategy. More importantly, we should be pleased that the ACMECS has been integrated into the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity. Indeed, ACMECS connectivity will not only contribute to the vision of ASEAN
Connectivity but also to the ASEAN community building by 2015.
I am pleased to stress that we
have made a lot progress in all areas of ACMECS cooperation. However, I believe that more efforts will be required in
order to elevate ACMECS cooperation to a level that we
wish to be. Indeed, further efforts in facilitation of trade, investment
and tourism will further boost economic growth and social progress.
The
issue of climate change is of critical importance for our future. Last
month, in a number of ACMECS member countries, including Cambodia, there were unusual heavy rains and
flooding in some parts of the countries. It is also a constant reminder
that the impact of climate change is here to stay and may cause
unpredictable damages in the future, especially to the poor. In this
spirit, ACMECS countries need to join hands to tackle the impacts of climate change.
Thus, I welcome the establishment of the ACMECS Environment Working Group, co-chaired by Cambodia and Vietnam.
At
the same time, climate change has had considerable impact on
agriculture, especially rice production. Therefore, it is important that
our cooperation in rice production and exports need to be further
strengthened. ACMECS countries can be considered as a «rice bowl» of the world. Thailand and
Vietnam are ranked first and second respectively in terms of rice export
to the world market. Myanmar also has high potential in this sector.
Given the potential in the country and the opportunity in the regional
and global market, the Royal Government of Cambodia has given high
priority in promoting rice production and export by launching recently
«the Policy on Rice Production and Export Promotion». Thus, I would like to take
this opportunity to commend the efforts made by our ACMECS SOM and Economic Ministers for the finalization of the ACMECS Rice
Cooperation initiative.
To achieve the objectives and vision set out in the
summit’s Declaration and Action Plan, efforts made by our governments
alone are not adequate. We should crate favorable conditions for and
encourage active participation of the private sector. Their support and
participation at the project implementation level will have tremendous impact on the development of ACMECS countries and the realization of ACMECS’
vision. In this regards, the ACMECS governments have an important role to play to create additional
opportunities for the private sector to participate in the ACMECS cooperation.
Moreover, the development and progress of ACMECS cooperation cannot be separated from the support and assistance from our
development partners. As ACMECS is a part of the ASEAN Connectivity, we should join hands to mobilize
support in both financial and technical resources for the implementation
of ACMECS projects. I believe that these are the important points of agenda for
our discussions at today’s summit.
Finally, I wish to reiterate the
support for the shared vision of development among Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam (CLMTV). I strongly believe that the
successful implementation of the Economic Cooperation Strategy will
fulfill the shared development vision of our nations, namely long-term
peace and stability, development and prosperity for all of our people.
I would like to
declare the opening of the 4th ACMECS Summit and wish our
deliberation successful.
EndItem.
Remarks at the 4th ACMECS Summit
on ACMECS Cooperation and Future Direction
Phnom Penh, 17th November 2010
- Excellencies Heads of
the Governments of ACMECS Countries
- Excellency Secretary General of ASEAN
- Distinguished Delegates of the ACMECS countries
- Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!
This fourth ACMECS Summit is not just an important milestone all of us to
review the progress of ACMECS Projects after the
implementation of the Bagan Declaration, but
also provides new opportunity for us to set
the future direction for deeper and more comprehensive ACMECS
cooperation. Indeed, this Summit is an opportunity to reiterate
our firm commitments to implement the ACMECS Plan of Action
(2010-2012) in order to realize the vision of building good
neighborliness among member countries, promoting peace, stability and
sustainable development in our region.
I have noted
that we have made some progress in all areas of cooperation, especially
in implementing a number of bilateral and common projects in trade
facilitation and investment, agricultural cooperation, transport
linkages, tourism and human resource development. However, I think we
have not done our best to implement all projects that we have prepared.
Therefore, I believe much more efforts will be needed to elevate ACMECS cooperation to a higher level to further contribute to
narrowing the development gap and reducing poverty in the region. At the same time, we
also need to exert our greatest efforts to promote projects in the areas
of industry and energy cooperation and the establishment of wholesale
markets along the borders, and other common projects, which require
substantial investments.
The
ACMECS cooperation should be geared towards vigorously and continuously
implementing its existing strategy. We have to promote the development
of agricultural sector to a new height to strengthen and diversify the
base of economic growth as well as to promote poverty reduction for our
peoples. There is no doubt, that agriculture must be a priority under
all circumstances because this sector does not only play leading role in
food security, but also helps maintain political stability and
accelerate the pace of socio-economic development.
The steady increase in foods prices can affect our respective economies.
But, if we look from another angle, I would say that higher food prices
also present opportunity for developing countries to increase investment
in agriculture in order to boost productivity and export of agricultural
products. We should appreciate the fact that ACMECS countries produce
about 62.05 million tons of milled rice per annum, accounting for 13% of the world’s total rice production, and we export to the world
approximately 16.61 million tons per year, or 45% of the world rice
exports. Therefore, I believe that cooperation in rice production
and trade would not only further strengthen our position on the world
market, but also help significantly contribute to the promotion of the
living standard of our farmers.
Moreover,
having realized the adverse impacts of global warming and climate
change, which could result in natural calamity, I highly appreciate the
creation of the Working Group on Environment, which is co-chaired
by Cambodia and Vietnam. We hope that the working group will produce
fruitful and tangible outcome as expected.
For the ACMECS’s future direction, I strongly believe that we should mobilize our
resources and double our efforts to implement the existing projects and
flagship projects as well as trying our utmost efforts to implement the ACMECS Plan of Action 2010-2012. In this
regard, we should mandate our Ministers and Senior Officials to closely
monitor and provide guidance to the respective working groups of the
eight Sectors of ACMECS by focusing on the implementation
at the project level.
Taking this
valuable opportunity, I would like to encourage all development partners
of ACMECS countries to provide financial support and
technical assistance to ensure successful implementation of the ACMECS projects. At the same time, I would like also to appeal
to our ASEAN Secretary General to help mobilize all the available
resources in order to realize the ACMECS’s vision, as it
will make major contribution to the efforts of reducing gap within the
region as well as to build ASEAN Community.
Together with
this milestone of ACMECS cooperation, I strongly believe
that we will make further progress in achieving the ACMECS cooperation’s objectives of fostering regional prosperity and welfare of our peoples.
EndItem.
PRESS
STATEMENT
The
Outcomes of the 6th CLV Summit,
the 5th CLMV Summit and the 4th ACMECS Summit
1. From 16th to 17th October 2010 Cambodia hosted and chaired the 6th CLV Summit, the 5th CLMV Summit and the 4th ACMECS
Summit. The Summits were held at the Peace Palace, Phnom Penh and
chaired by Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime
Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The main outcomes of these Summits
are the following:
I. The 6th CLV
Summit
2. The Summit was held to
review progress and set out future direction of the CLV cooperation.
3. The meeting took note
of the progress of cooperation in the CLV Triangle Development Area,
especially the achievements made in the area of trade and investment,
including the organization of trade fairs; conferences on trade,
investment and tourism promotion; simplification of export procedures
and business registration processes; and the granting of tax incentives
to boost investment in the region.
4. The meeting adopted
the revised Socio-Economic Development Master Plan in the CLV
Development Triangle Area (2010-2020) and given high priority to a
number of sectors, such as physical infrastructure, trade and investment
facilitation, social and cultural development, agro-industry and
tourism…etc. with a view to accelerating socio-economic development and
poverty reduction, which are crucial for realizing the vision of
creating a harmonious and prosperous Development Triangle Area by the
year 2020.
5. The meeting made a
firm commitment to promoting this cooperation through the adoption of «the Phnom Penh Declaration on Deepening of Cooperation in the Development
Triangle Area» and the amended the «MOU on the Special
Preferential Policies for CLV Development Triangle Area».
6. Moreover, the meeting
was resolved to accelerate the implementation of the bilateral and
multilateral agreements in the Development Triangle Area, particularly
the Cross Border Transport Agreement of the GMS, the ASEAN Economic
Blueprint, bilateral trade agreements, the Rice Cooperation and Contract
Farming Projects and the ASEAN Single Window.
II. The 5th CLMV Summit
7. The Summit was held to
review progress and set out future direction of the CLMV cooperation.
8. The CLMV cooperation
was established to narrow development gap and to accelerate the
integration of the four countries in order to catch up with the other
six ASEAN members. As a result, since the 1st CLMV Summit held in Vientiane, under the CLMV cooperation an Action Plan
covering 9 areas of cooperation was adopted and include the following
sectors: (1) coordination of economic integration
policies, (2) trade and investment facilitation and
promotion, (3) agriculture, (4) industry and
energy, (5) transport, (6) information and
communication technology (ICT), (7) tourism, (8) human resource development and (9) health care. In this
framework, 58 concrete projects were adopted at the 4th CLMV
Summit in Hanoi in 2008.
9. At this CLMV Summit,
the meeting adopted the Joint Declaration of the 5th CLMV
Summit to reaffirm their determination to promote cooperation in the
9 areas and to deepen the traditional relationships based on the
long-lasting friendship, good neighborliness and mutual benefits among
the CLMV Countries.
10. As financing remains a
key challenge, the meeting was determined to seek assistance from
development partners and encourage private sector’s participation in
both regional and sub-regional frameworks in order to accelerate the
implementation of action plans and important projects. In this regard,
the meeting agreed to prioritize and select 16 projects to be submitted
to development partners, particularly Japan, China, Korea and India for
their support.
III. The 4th ACMECS Summit
11. The Ayeyawady-Chao
Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) is a cooperation framework between Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand
and Vietnam established to capitalize on both economic disparities and
complementarities of member countries in order to narrow the development
gaps in the sub-region and contribute to building the ASEAN community.
12. The objectives of this
4th ACMECS Summit are: (1) review ACMECS
cooperation and future direction, and (2) review and adopt
the Declaration and the Plan of Action to expedite the implementation of
ACMECS cooperation framework.
13. ACMECS cooperation
includes 8 sectors namely, (1) investment and trade
facilitation, (2) agricultural sector, (3) industrial and energy sector, (4) transport linkages, (5) tourism sector, (6) human resource
development, (7) public health, and (8) environment, which is a new sector adopted at the 3rd ACMECS
Summit held in 2008 in Hanoi. Cambodia and Vietnam are the co-chairs of
the Environmental Sector Working Group.
14. The meeting adopted the ACMECS's Plan of Action 2010-2012 as a roadmap for the
implementation of cooperation among ACMECS member countries, as
well as the cooperation with development partners to ensure its
successful implementation by 2012.
15. The meeting also
adopted the Phnom Penh Declaration on ACMECS and
incorporated the Declaration on ACMECS Rice Cooperation into
agricultural cooperation in order to strengthen ACMECS’s position
in the areas of rice production and exports to world market.
16. In this connection,
the Heads of the Governments of ACMECS member countries also met with
ACMECS business leaders. The ACMECS Business Council was
created as a common project under trade and investment facilitation
cooperation. ACMECS Leaders encouraged active participation of the ACMECS Business Council in the implementation of ACMECS's Plan of
Action, particularly under the initiative of Governments-Private Sector
Partnership, in order to ensure maximum and effective use of all the
potentials of the existing business and investment opportunities in
member countries.
17. The 6th CLV Summit, the 5th CLMV Summit and the 4th ACMECS
Summit were held
as ASEAN is also accelerating the process of building the ASEAN
community by 2015. From the beginning, the establishment of these
cooperation frameworks at sub-regional level is designed to achieve the
main goal - promoting development and physical connectivity in the
newer, less-developed ASEAN members. This will make concrete
contribution to the efforts in narrowing development gaps and
accelerating community building in the region. First and foremost, the
objective is to build the ASEAN Community, and afterward to build the
East Asia Community in the longer run.
18. In this sense, we take
great pride from the fact that as through our joint efforts, the CLV,
CLMV and ACMECS cooperation frameworks were incorporated into the
Master Plan on ASEAN connectivity recently adopted at the 17th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi. The Master Plan is pre-requisite and necessary
for building and realizing the ASEAN Community by 2015. As financing
remains a fundamental challenge for countries like Cambodia, Lao PDR,
Myanmar and Viet Nam, the preparation
of projects of CLV, CLMV and ACMECS cooperation frameworks to be
incorporated into the Master Plan of ASEAN Connectivity is part
of our innovative and creative mechanism to engage ASEAN dialogue
partners and other development partners to provide support for projects
of their best interest.
19. The Heads of the
Governments of all countries participating in these summits highly
appreciated the capable and efficient chairmanship of Samdech Akka Moha
Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of
Cambodia and expressed their profound gratitude to the Royal Government
and People of Cambodia for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to
all delegates participating in these important Summits.
Phnom Penh, 17th October 2010
EndItem. |