BANGKOK, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Leaders from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) agreed on Saturday to promote the effectiveness and roles of their cooperation mechanism to narrow the gap between CLMV and other ASEAN countries.
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, who chaired the 9th CLMV summit, told a press conference that the four countries have attained progress since the CLMV mechanism was established 14 years ago.
"The four countries are jointly committed to undertaking utmost efforts to promote the effectiveness and roles of CLMV cooperation mechanism, aiming to realize the sustainable development goals and narrow the gaps," Hun Sen said.
To realize the goal, the four countries also reaffirmed their commitment to further deepen cooperation, actively coordinate and comprehensively promote CLMV's economic linkage and people's connectivity, according to him.
Enhancing infrastructure connectivity, facilitating cross border goods and peoples' movements, promoting cross-border trade, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, simplifying the movement of intra-CLMV travelers and attracting more inbound tourists to the four countries are among their priorities, Hun Sen said.
The Cambodian prime minister also said the four countries would cooperation on human resource development, agriculture and energy sector, such as promoting power grid connectivity and power trade.
The four countries would also cooperate on information technology and telecommunication, as CLMV countries should enhance cross-border ICT connectivity and services to encourage online trade, economic activities and socio-culture exchange as well as cooperate on cyber security, he said.
The CLMV summit, which was firstly held in Lao capital of Vientiane in 2004, is held simultaneously with the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) summit in recent years.
Hun Sen also announced that Laos would host the 10th CLMV summit in 2020.
