Under the Asian Development Bank’s initiative, in 1992 the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Economic Cooperation program was established in order for promoting the sub-regional economic cooperation within these six countries, including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and PRC (Yunnan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region).
The GMS Summits and Related Documents
The GMS Program is managed by an institutional mechanism, involving both the political and operational levels of the six GMS member countries. The program is based on continuing consultation and dialogue among GMS member countries. The institutional arrangements for the GMS Program are pragmatic and flexible, and guided only by a general set of principles. The GMS institutional structure has three levels: the Leaders’ Summit, the Ministerial Conference , and the working group and forum in the priority sectors.
- 1st GMS Summit in 2002, Cambodia
- 2nd GMS Summit in 2005, China (Yunan)
- 3rd GMS Summit in 2008, Lao PDR
- 4th GMS Summit in 2011, Myanmar
- 5th GMS Summit in 2014, Thailand
- 6th GMS Summit in 2018, Vietnam
- 7th GMS Summit in 2021, Cambodai
The GMS Economic Corridor
“Economic corridors are an integrated system of roads, rails, and ports that connect GMS countries. They link centers of production, including manufacturing hubs, industrial clusters, and economic zones, as well as centers of demand, such as capitals and major cities. They act as gateways to the sub-region for regional and international trade.” The following is the key documents for the GMS Economic Corridor Development:
- Configuration of the GMS Economic Corridors-Nov 2016
- 2018 Review_Configuration of the GMS Economic Corridors
The Regional Investment Framework
The Regional Investment Framework 2022 (RIF-2022) is the medium-term pipeline of priority projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). Projects in the RIF 2022 were generated through extensive consultations with GMS institutional working groups, forums, and the GMS national coordinators and secretariats in each country as part of the RIF business process. The following is the key documents for RIF:
- RIF2022_ProgressReportOverview_online
- Annex to Regional Investment Framework 2022
- GMS Ha Noi Action Plan Sector Operational Priorities_Annex to Guide and Format RIF 2022 Progress Report
- RIF 2022_Generic_2018 Progress Report Guide & Format
- GMS-RIF-IP_Mid-Term Review_2020
- GMS-RIF-IP-2020_Annexes
The Priority Areas for Cooperation
With support from ADB and other donors, the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program supports the implementation of high-priority sub-regional projects including: