Project Launching: Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund Projects Launched

The launching ceremony of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund Projects (2020) organized by the Department of Research and Innovation was held at Melia Hotel, Yangon, on 18th August.

Among four projects that are obtained by the department of Research and Innovation, the two projects that launched today are “Study on Deep Processing of Fruits for Economic Development in Lancang-Mekong Area” and “Exchange program to promote the value and production capacity on the agricultural food products with the use of innovative technology among Lancang-Mekong countries”.

Director-General, Department of Research and Innovation, Win Khine Moe said “For the prevention and control of Covid-19, several restrictions including social distancing have been imposed. We obtained 4 Lancang-Mekong Cooperation special fund projects in 2020. So, we had to delay to hold this ceremony for the two projects and we have postponed the other two projects to October, next year.”

Lancang-Mekong Cooperation aims at bolstering the economic and social development of the Mekong sub-regional countries.

China provided over 6.7 million USD to Myanmar for 22 projects areas of agriculture, education, ICT, among others.

The two LMC projects are focused on the development of agricultural products and will be considered to address the challenges and how to get the development of agro-food industry development and share the outcomes to SMEs around the regions.

Director, Food Research Department, Thazin Han said “We selected the local fruits and observe them in detail with the dry technology: freeze-drying and vacuum drying. We obtain the dried fruits with the full nutritional value and these fruits can be produced as value-added products. We provide machines for small scale enterprises in the project. We will look into the technologies that fit with the fruits in Myanmar.”

The second project is the technological exchange and product exchange. The benefit of the project for Myanmar is to reduce the waste of fruits and get priority of growing fruits that will be value-added products.

1st Secretary In-Charge, Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, Mr Su Zhe said “It benefits to the local people, especially farmers, fruit growers, fish products processing people. The purpose of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation is to shorten the gaps between the development among the countries and to achieve the common development of all six countries. You know it has been very successful... We contributed 16.24 million USD for 51 Myanmar projects and we will continue to urge the Chinese side to implement these projects seriously. Also, we'd like to raise public awareness and the feasibility of these projects and the progress of the projects.”

Lancang and Mekong are the different names of the same river originated at Yunnan Province of China.

The Mekong River runs through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.