Senior officials meet in Hanoi to prepare for sixth GMS summit

At the meeting, GMS senior officials held a final review of the topic and related issues for discussion at the Leaders’ Retreat, going over the expected flow of proceedings and the possible key messages, themes, points, and issues that may be raised by the leaders, based on the briefing materials that have been prepared for them.

They reviewed the updated and finalised status report on the Summit deliverables prepared by the GMS Secretariat, including Hanoi Action Plan (2018-2022), the Regional Investment Framework (RIF) 2022, and specific sector objectives. The officials assessed the finalised program, content, and proposed order of proceedings of the above key GMS summit events.

Vietnam, as the Summit host, presented updates and details on the status of the administrative and logistical arrangements for Day 2 and Day 3 of the Summit, including security, protocol, transport, accommodations, venue layouts, seating arrangements, and other administrative matters.

The country is holding the sixth GMS Summit and the 10th Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV-10) Development Triangle Summit slated for Hanoi from March 29-31.

GMS was established in 1992 as an initiative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The GMS Programme is the most complete cooperation programme involving Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.

The subregion has so far organised 22 ministerial meetings and five summits.