Greater Mekong Sub-region countries eye for long-term tourism development

Yangon September 14

Greater Mekong Sub-region tourism master plan (2016-2025) will include five strategies including human resources development.

U Tint Thwin, director-general of Directorate of Hotels and Tourism, said: “We had had comprehensive discussions on wide-ranging subjects at Mekong Tourism Forum in Thailand and Cambodia. Member countries are also holding discussions respectively so that the (next) forum can represent the collective voices of all stakeholders.”

Among the five strategies are human capital development, promotion of tourism infrastructure, responsible tourism and improvement of tourism service, implementation of market promotional programs and smoother transportation among the member countries.

Concerned departments and bodies have also been urged to provide recommendations in designing the Greater Mekong Subregion tourism master plan which sets out the tourism development goals in next ten years. 

Japanese tour guide Ma Phyo Thaw said: “There should be a system that can help member countries assist with each other in developing human resources. Again, the master plan must be able to prevent human trafficking on the pretext of tourism.”

Greater Mekong Sub-region countries which include of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam have expressed their commitment to fight against all forms of trafficking in persons and slavery in accordance with international treaties in cooperation with international agencies.

The Myawady Daily

Four Mekong countries start river patrols

Mekong River

Yangon January 27

Chinese and Lao ships started guarding Mekong waters on 26 of this month in their first round of joint patrols for the year 2016 in which Myanmar and Thailand are other participants.

Lawmen from four countries – Myanmar, China, Laos and Thailand -- sharing the Mekong basin will do the job of securing Mekong river passage and curbing crimes such as human trafficking, gunrunning and drug smuggling that are frequent in the Golden Triangle region where the remote part of river flows through.

The first round of patrol ships left Guanlei Port in Xishuangbanna autonomous prefecture in the southwest Yunnan Province in China at 8 am. The four-day patrol includes eight river-guard ships -- five Chinese ships and three Lao ships.

Since 2011 joint river guarding force has been launched for 42 rounds. The joint patrol program started in December that year in taking safety measures as fears rose after a gang hijacked two cargo ships in Thai waters two months earlier in which 13 Chinese sailors were killed.

The Myawady Daily