Mekong River Commission

Mekong River Commission to increase technical cooperation with China and Myanmar

MRC No.15/04
Vientiane, 26 August 2004

The Mekong River Commission Secretariat is proposing to encourage increased technical cooperation with China and Myanmar as part of its Water Utilisation Programme, Mr Siripong Hungspreug, Chairman of the Mekong River Commission Joint Committee for 2004/2005 told the delegates at the 9th Dialogue Meeting held in Vientiane today.

Mr Hungspreug explained that this cooperation would evolve around visits to the MRC Secretariat and to the Mekong Delta and Tonle Sap areas.

The Dialogue Meeting involves discussions between the four member countries of the MRC (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam) and delegations from the People’s Republic of China and the Union of Myanmar.

“As these six countries share the waters of the Mekong River it is in their mutual interest to cooperate for the wider development of the Basin, towards its peoples’ well-being and protection of its natural resources,” he said.

Following a technical cooperation agreement signed between the MRC and China in April 2002, which was implemented in 2003, China has been sending twenty-four hourly water level and twelve hourly rainfall data to the MRC to aid in flood forecasting. An AusAID-funded Appropriate Hydrological Network Improvement Project (AHNIP) has already established 18 monitoring stations and five national data handling centres around the region and recent improvement of the two hydrological stations in Yunnan Province and the establishment of the Data Centre at the Provincial Bureau of Hydrology and Water Resources in Kunming, has improved this data exchange.

Mr Hungspreug said the MRC was grateful to China for this cooperation, which had a significant potential for further enhancement, and the Commission also appreciated the willingness of Myanmar in sharing hydrological data from the Mekong station located at its stretch of the River.

At the Dialogue Meeting the MRC members briefed their dialogue partners on transboundary issues involved in the MRC’s four core programmes (the Basin Development Plan the Environment Programme, the Water Utilisation Programme and the Flood Management and Mitigation Programme) as well as sharing information on fisheries-related hydrological data and fish ecology. They also discussed the progress of the Navigation Channel Improvement of the Lancang/Mekong River project and other water resources related projects in the Mekong.

Mr Hungspreug thanked the Government of Lao PDR for hosting the 9th Dialogue Meeting.

 

For more information, please contact:

Ms Virginia Addison, Communications Officer,
Tel: 856 21 263 263 Ext 1122.
Mobile: (856) 20 559 9139
Fax: (856-21) 263 264
Email: virginia@mrcmekong.org
Website: www.mrcmekong.org

 

 

Top