Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, his spouse andentourage on October 7 left Hanoi for Tokyo to attend the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting and visit Japan from October 8-10.

He was accompanied by Minister, Chairman of the Office of the Government MaiTien Dung, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister ofIndustry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, Minister of Natural Resources and EnvironmentTran Hong Ha, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung, and Governor of the StateBank of Vietnam Le Minh Hung, among others.

The 10th Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting marks ten years of theMekong-Japan cooperation mechanism, and three years of carrying out the Tokyo Strategy2015. Vietnam’s attendance at the event aims to affirm the country’s commitmentto this cooperation mechanism.

Also, the meeting will also offer an opportunity for relevant sides to reviewexperience in the past ten years, map out major orientations, and recommendmeasures to improve cooperation efficiency in the coming time.

Japan recommended the Japan-Mekong partnership programme at the 12th ASEAN Summit in 2007. Since then, member countries of the cooperation mechanismhas organised nine high-level meetings, 11 ministerial meetings and economicministers’ meetings, reaching various agreements.

During 2009-2012, their cooperation focused on soft and hard infrastructure,sustainable development, narrowing development gap, environmental protection,response to challenges like diseases and natural disasters, and enhancingexchanges between Mekong countries and Japan.

Meanwhile, they worked together to bolster connection within the Sub-Mekongregion, between the Sub-Mekong region with other parts of the world, andbetween Mekong countries and Japan during 2013-2015. Also, the Mekongdevelopment roadmap for 2012-2015, and the Mekong-Japan Economic and IndustrialCooperation Initiative were carried out.

For 2016-2018 period, aiming to attain the “quality growth”, and continuesustainable economic development, the countries joined hands to branch outindustrial infrastructure as well as develop transport links between Mekongcountries and other regions. In addition, they worked to expand industrial sectorsand regional value chain, improve human resources, foster institutional andeconomic connection and people-to-people exchanges, and accelerate sustainabledevelopment towards a green Mekong.

At the 7th Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting in Tokyo on July 4, 2015,Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the official developmentassistance of about 750 billion JPY, or 7 billion USD, to the five Mekongcountries to carry out the New Tokyo Strategy 2015 for Mekong-JapanCooperation. Japan also prioritised the Sub-Mekong region when carry out the“Partnership for Quality Infrastructure” initiative in collaboration with theAsian Development Bank. The 110 billion USD project aimed to developinghigh-quality infrastructure in Asia-Pacific.

Furthermore, the Mekong Industrial Development Vision for the 2016-2018 periodhas been carried out under the Mekong-Japan cooperation mechanism.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will pay a visit toJapan. The visit takes place in a special occasion when the two countries arecelebrating 45th anniversary of the diplomatic relations. It aims totighten the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership which is developingfruitfully across fields, contributing to enhancing mutual political trustbetween the two countries.-VNA