Vientiane (VNA) - The Joint Coordination Committee on Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle Area🔯 held its 10th Meeting in the Lao province of Champasak on December 11.

The event was jointly chaired by Lao Minister of Planning and Investment Somdy Duongdy, Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh, and Cambodian Senior Minister of Trade Sun Chanthol. The ministers adopted recommendations of the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) held a day earlier and showed their delight with the implementation progress of the CLV blueprint of the respective countries, saying these contributed to enhancing solidarity, traditional neighbourliness, stability and peace in the region and facilitating socio-economic development. They reviewed the implementation of a joint statement of the eighth CLV Summit held in November 2014 in Vientiane, especially the execution of the socio-economic development plan for the triangle area from 2010 to 2020.  They also examined the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on policies to draw investment to the area and debated orientations for cooperation in the near future with a view of developing the triangle into an investment and tourism hub. Discussions also touched upon how to mobilise capital from development partners, financial institutions and the private sector for projects and programmes within the region’s cooperation framework. The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was tasked to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia and the Ministry of Forestry of Laos to complete a report on the making of a development plan for the rubber industry in the triangle area. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment was assigned to work together with relevant Cambodian and Lao ministries, sectors and localities to finalise a project to connect the three countries’ economies. These documents will be submitted to the three Prime Ministers at their ninth summit in Cambodia in 2016. The Ministers appreciated Japan’s continuous provision of development assistance in the clearance of bombs, mines, and unexploded ordnances, natural disaster response, support to people with disabilities, and medical relief for Mekong River countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. They agreed to organise a forum for the CLV Development Triangle’s development partners on the sidelines of the ninth CLV Summit in Cambodia in 2016 and later in Vietnam. The CLV Development Triangle Area covers four Cambodian provinces (Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Mondulkiri, Kratie), four Lao provinces (Attapeu, Salavan, Sekong, Champasak), and five Vietnamese provinces (Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc).-VNA