U Wunna Maung Lwin, Union Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and H.E. Mr. Chen Hai, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar signed the agreement on the transfer of fund for Mekong-Lancang Special Fund (2021) projects, via video conference in the morning of 10th August 2021.
The Union Minister for International Cooperation, Union Ministers from project receiving Ministries, deputy minister, permanent secretary and senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and officials from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Yangon participated in the signing ceremony.
Although Myanmar received a total of 22 projects under the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund (2021), the transfer will be made over 6.1 million USD for 21 projects, and the fund for establishing “Biosafety level-3 Laboratory” project will be transferred once the internal process of fund supporter has completed. The projects to be implemented in Myanmar, covers in the areas of non-traditional security, human capital development, vaccine production for animal diseases, culture, agriculture, natural disaster protection, science and technology, environmental conservation, forestry, border trade, tourism and finance.
China solely established the Special Fund under the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation in 2017 to implement the projects supported to the socioeconomic development of Mekong countries, and granted the projects annually to each of Mekong countries. Myanmar had received (51) projects between 2017 and 2020 with total value of USD (16.3) million.
The Mekong-Lancang Cooperation was initiated by the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the 17th ASEAN-China Summit held in Myanmar in 2014 to foster cooperation to narrow the development gap and attain sustainable development in the Mekong region. Mekong-Lancang Cooperation was officially launched in 2016 among six Mekong-Lancang countries comprising Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.— MNA
