Poverty Reduction: Workshop On Mekong-Lancang Cooperation

Mekong-Lancang Cooperation is underway. Myanmar hosted Project Planning Workshop on promoting Alliances on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication among LMC Countries through Exchanges in Nay Pyi Taw on Wednesday.

This is part of part of the Agriculture and Poverty Reduction project under the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund for the 2nd batch. The Mekong-Lancang Cooperation was established by the initiative of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the 17th ASEAN-China Summit held in Myanmar in 2014 to foster cooperation in sustainable development of the Mekong region. The Department of Rural Development is undertaking as a focal in Joint working Group of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation on Sustainable Poverty Reduction.

Director, Department of Rural development, Ye Khaung said “We aim this project to share experiences among Mekong-Lancang countries and make a report. The workshop intends to study rural development tasks being undertaken by the concerned departments of Mekong-Lancang countries. The project will provide social improvement in Mekong-Lancang regions and poverty reduction.”

The sub-regional cooperation framework was officially launched in 2016 among six Mekong-Lancang countries comprising Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.

Deputy Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Win Zeya Tun said “The Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Mechanism officially established on 23rd March, 2016. To support development of Mekong countries, China established Mekong-Lancang funding. They established the first special fund with 300 million USD. China selects the projects that are compatible with Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Framework and provides fund. In 2017, Myanmar got 10 projects for the special fund 1st batch. For special fund 2nd batch, we got 19 projects. We are implementing the projects and we are still propose projects for the 3rd batch.”

In this workshop in Nay Pyi Taw, key initiatives/development Model of Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (cost-effective, easy to replicate, ability to scaling up) were presented. Prioritization of key initiatives for cross-country technical exchange visits, project implementation arrangement, project work plan and budget plan were also discussed.