Cambodia presents Lancang-Mekong Cooperation to officials, university students

PHNOM PENH, March 22 (Xinhua) -- In the celebration of the first annual Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Week, Cambodia on Thursday introduced the LMC to approximately 400 officials and university students here.

Initiated by China in 2014, the LMC aimed to advance all-around cooperation among the six Lancang-Mekong countries, said Sok Siphana, chair of the National Secretariat of Cambodia for the LMC.

The LMC consists of six-member countries, namely China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Its main objective is to create a community of shared future, peace, and prosperity," he said.

Siphana, who is also an advisor to the Cambodian government, added that the LMC was also to promote peace, stability, and development in the region, and to contribute to boosting the China's proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

He said the LMC focused on three pillars, namely political-security cooperation, economic cooperation, and socio-cultural cooperation, and five priority areas of cooperation, namely connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management and agriculture, and poverty reduction.

The first LMC Leaders' Meeting was convened in Sanya city of southern China's Hainan province in March 2016, and the 2nd LMC Leaders' Meeting was held in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, in Jan. 2018.

According to Siphana, China had been playing a key role in building a community of shared future in the Lancang-Mekong countries.

He said at the 2nd LMC Leaders' Meeting, China announced the setup of a 5-billion-U.S.-dollar credit line for supporting production capacity and equipment manufacturing cooperation among the Lancang-Mekong countries.

Also, China pledged another 7 billion yuan (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) preferential loan for foreign aid to support cooperation projects from 2019 to 2020, he said.

Originating 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. Enditem