Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar seeking further economic integration

[XINHUA]

HANOI, July 25 -- A seminar was held here on Monday among senior officials and delegates from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam who shared their experience in devising and implementing international economic integration policies to serve their countries' sustainable development.

According to Vietnam News Agency (VNA), participants agreed that their countries should promote cooperation in the sub-regional, regional and inter-regional frameworks to make the best use of opportunities and minimize challenges from international economic integration.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Doan Xuan Hung suggested the four countries continue to actively take part in international economic integration and closely coordinate to contribute to building the ASEAN community.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Tomoyumi Kimura spoke highly of prospects for cooperation in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), saying that 55 projects worth 14 billion U.S. dollars in total have been carried out in the GMS framework.

ADB will further cooperate with the four countries and assist existing sub-regional cooperation mechanisms to help them in their international economic integration and maintaining sustainable development, said Kimura.

The seminar is part of a cooperation project between the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Germany's Hanns Seidel Foundation to help Vietnam and regional countries in international economic integration, VNA reported.