Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the conference.  

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the conference.

The Conference highly appreciated and unanimously approved India's initiative to establish a MGC Sectoral Cooperation Coordination Mechanism and establish an MGC Business Council to encourage business participation and contributions, bringing MGC cooperation into reality, and bringing benefits to people and businesses. Accordingly, the Ministers agreed to extend the MGC Action Plan for the period 2019 - 2022 until the end of 2024.

Speaking at the Conference, Minister Bui Thanh Son affirmed Vietnam's respect and effective contribution to MGC cooperation.

The Minister emphasized that in the context of a rapidly changing world, MGC needs to prioritize and can help member countries improve competitiveness and sustainable development.

Minister Bui Thanh Son proposed three main groups of measures. First, promoting economic linkages between Mekong countries and India for sustainable recovery and growth; finding new measures to facilitate cross-border trade, promote investment opportunities, support business connections, enhance transport connectivity, and support micro, small and medium enterprises.

Second, ensuring a green and sustainable future for future generations through cooperation in responding to food - water - energy security challenges, technology transfer and investment in clean and renewable energy, and mobilizing resources to support the energy transition.

Third, promoting people-to-people exchanges contributes to strengthening friendship and partnership among MGC members.

The Minister proposed promoting cooperation in education and vocational training to help meet the great demand for high-quality human resources, expanding tourism cooperation to help restore the economy, especially culinary tourism and wedding tourism, and asked India to continue supporting Mekong countries in preserving UNESCO cultural heritages.

The Minister also proposed joint activities of MGC to celebrate the 25th anniversary of MGC in 2025.

The Minister's speech was highly appreciated, accepted and reflected in the Conference documents by member countries.

The conference ended successfully with the adoption of the Joint Statement and two annexes on coordinating MGC cooperation by sector and establishing the MGC Business Council.

The Ministers agreed to hold the 13th MGC Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting in 2024.

VNA

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