Vietnam will further cooperate with the Mekong River Commission(MRC)’s member countries in promoting MRC’s research on sustainabledevelopment and management of water resource in the Mekong River.

Le Duc Trung, Office Chief of Vietnam National MekongCommittee made the affirmation in a conference held in Hanoi on July12 to review Vietnam ’s efforts in cooperating with its Mekongpartners in the field.

He said that Vietnam will alsostrengthen cooperation with strategic and dialogue partners whileactively participating in international and regional cooperationinitiatives such as the Mekong-Japan and Mekong-US cooperation, theGreater Mekong Subregion and the Asia-Europe Meeting.

In theperiod of 2012-2013, the cooperation in the Mekong region has beenstrengthened and developed, with many important events on the theme ofwater organised in Vietnam and MRC member countries.

Vietnamhosted the ASE M workshop on water and river basin in March and the 4th working group meeting of the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) inApril this year. In May, the second Asia-Pacific Water Summit tookplace in Thailand . At these events, leaders of regional countriesvoiced their commitment to strengthening cooperation on sustainablemanagement and development of water resources, particularlytrans-national resources.

However, the Mekong cooperationis also facing many challenges, especially the potential negativeimpacts on environment in the region by the rapid increase in water usein the basin.
Trung said that the Vietnam committeewill assist relevant ministries, sectors and localities in participatingin MRC’s cooperation activities.-VNA