17th GMS Ministerial Conference Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2 4 August 2011

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC Ruth Huber, Director SDC Program for the Mekong Region

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC, has been supporting the Mekong Region with a focus on Lao PDR and Vietnam. We have a Program Office in Hanoi and our Regional Cooperation Office in Vientiane. A recent decision of the Swiss Parliament, to raise Official Development Assistance, ODA, to 0,5% of the Swiss GDP, gives us the possibility to slightly increase and enlarge our collaboration with the Mekong-Region. This opens up the possibility to initiate countryspecific programs also in Cambodia and in Myanmar, as well as to support regional processes and programs through international and inter-governmental institutions. At the end of this year, SDC will start working on the definition of a new Strategic Framework for the period 2013 2016. In that process we will explore possibilities, needs and areas where SDCs support can make a difference. As a small country, Switzerland is not in a position to support the large infrastructure and connectivity programs under the GMS framework. We see our possible contribution rather in the transfer of know-how, in capacity development and the strengthening of Human Resources in the region. We are very pleased to see that the new Strategic Framework of the GMS-Program puts a stronger focus on these software aspects which are so important to reach sustainable development. Another area of interest and experience of SDC is rural development. We are convinced that ensuring food security for the population in the Mekong Region is a crucial aspect of development. Food security can be tackled in many ways: not only through productivity increase and improved market access, but also through the management of water resources; increased resilience to adapt to the effects of climate change and through governance aspects, like facilitating access to land to poor rural families and ensuring transparent rules for land tenure. We observe with interest the rapid development in the Mekong Region and the development of economic corridors in the framework of the GMS-Program, which will create new development dynamics and opportunities. Many of these areas should and will be covered by private capital and by budget resources of the GMS-countries, while in others Official Development Assistance, ODA, is needed and justified. We think that ODA is especially important for the following areas: for strengthening the capacities of Governments and non-governmental groups; for ensuring that economic development is broad-based, leading to job-creation and income generation; and for enabling the weakest groups of society to participate in development, avoiding that the rapid economic development create gaps within society. Coming to an end of my intervention, I would like to reiterate SDCs interest and willingness to support the new Strategic Framework of the GMS and I thank the Kingdom of Cambodia and the ADB for the invitation to this important Conference.