Here's what you need to know about a growing bloc of nations in Asia

BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) forum leaders's meeting will kick off in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Wednesday, with the aim of building a community with a shared future of peace and prosperity.

Here are some basic facts about the LMC.

WHAT IS LMC?

The Lancang-Mekong River originates from the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in southwest China. The river is called the Lancang River in China and the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.

More than 326 million people live along the 4,880-km-long waterway, which flows through an area of more than 795,000 square km.

It brings the six riparian countries together into a community featuring equality, sincerity, mutual assistance and kinship. That is why the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) framework named after the river was warmly received by half a dozen countries when it was first proposed.

GAINS

The LMC has achieved plenty since its inception in 2016, demonstrating a Lancang-Mekong filled with speed and efficiency.

LMC has formed dialogue mechanisms at different levels. So far, it has held one leaders' meeting, three foreign ministers' meetings and five senior officials' meetings, according to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou.

On regional cooperation projects, most of the 45 early harvest projects identified at the first LMC leaders' meeting and the 13 initiatives put forward by China at the second LMC foreign ministers' meeting have been completed or witnessed substantive progress, according to the joint press communique of the third LMC foreign ministers' meeting held in Dali City in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Dec. 15.

FACTS AND FIGURES

In the first 10 months of 2017, trade between China and the other five countries in the Lancang-Mekong area reached 17.76 billion U.S. dollars, up 15.6 percent from the same period of the previous year, and is expected to exceed 20 billion dollars in the whole of 2017, showed the latest Chinese official statistics.

From January to October 2017, China's investment in the five countries reached 2.68 billion dollars, up 22.3 percent from the previous year.

The Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone is booming, attracting more than 100 companies from China and elsewhere and creating nearly 20,000 jobs for the local community. Enditem