A Vietnamese delegation led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung left Hanoi on April 19 for Tokyo, Japan to attend the 4^th Mekong-Japan Summit from April 20-21 at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda.

The summit aims to encourage government leaders from the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and Japan to increase cooperation for the sake of prosperity, stability and sustainable development in the Mekong region as well as in Southeast Asia.

PM Dung and other government leaders from the host country, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand will review the implementation of programmes and projects under the 63-point Action Programme, the Mekong-Japan Economic and. Industrial Cooperation Initiative (MJ-CI), the Green Mekong Initiative, and discuss specific measures to promote Mekong-Japan cooperation in the 2013-2015 period.

They will also discuss important issues of great concern to the international public such as the replacement of the Tokyo Statement adopted at the first Mekong-Japan Summit in 2008 with the Tokyo Strategy. If the strategy is approved at the fourth summit, it will serve as a foundation for enhancing future cooperation between GMS nations and Japan with a focus on promoting sub-regional connectivity, improving people’s living standards and ensuring human security and environmental sustainability.

To enhance connectivity in the Mekong region, PM Dung will propose new initiatives, particularly in support of road and sea transport.

The aim is to help ease traffic pressure, facilitate tourism development and exchange of goods and improve environmental protection.

Since the Mekong-Japan cooperation mechanism was put in place in 2007, Vietnam has carried out many key projects within its framework, including a project to build Lanh Huyen water port in Hai Phong under a pilot Private-Public Partnership (PPP) model, a project to build the Mekong-Japan training centre, a project to establish a sub-regional logistics training centre in Vietnam, a project on risk control in the customs sector in the Mekong region and a project to build expressways.

In addition, Vietnam has joined cross-cultural exchange programmes in Japan to help promote mutual understanding between Vietnam and Japan and other GMS nations.

At the fourth Mekong-Japan Summit, PM Dung and his delegation will affirm Vietnam’s role in the regional cooperation mechanism.

The Vietnamese Government leader is scheduled to meet with senior officials from the Japanese Government and major economic groups and organizations with a view to making the Vietnam-Japan strategic partnership more substantial and effective in the years to come.