Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program th 17 GMS Ministerial Conference Development Partners Meeting (DPM) Co-Chair's Report

to the Ministerial Meeting

Mr. Kunio Senga Director General Southeast Asia Department, ADB

Thank you Mr. Vice President. Excellencies, Vice President Lohani, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Good Morning.

I have the privilege to present to you the summary report of the Development Partners Meeting held yesterday. It was my honor to have co-chaired the meeting with Minister Sok Chenda Sophea.

The Development Partners Meeting was well attended, with participation by 46 representatives of 26 bilateral and multilateral development agencies, intergovernmental

organizations and regional organizations as well as GMS Senior

Officials, GMS Business Forum representative, and resource persons from ADB.

The objectives of the Development Partners Meeting were: 1. to brief development partners on the overall

achievements of the GMS Program under the current GMS Strategic Framework; 2. to get their views on the new GMS Strategic Framework (SF); and 3. to engage the in development a partners and other

stakeholders

constructive

dialogue

towards

enhancing support for effective implementation of the new GMS Strategic Framework.

Please allow me to summarize the key points that were discussed.

The DPM agreed that overall, the GMS Program has made substantial achievements under the current GMS Strategic Framework. There has been good progress in the hardware aspects but less progress on the software aspects of cooperation. Progress has been slow in achieving outcomes of improved transport and trade facilitation, and institutional and

coordination issues at the subregional and national levels remain to be addressed. More efforts are needed to mobilize resources to implement priority programs, with the continued support of development partners and the private sector.

The meeting acknowledged with appreciation the critical support and contributions from development partners that have served to ensure the Programs effectiveness and success, particularly in implementing priority initiatives under the Vientiane Plan of Action.

Partners welcomed the general thrusts and strategic directions of the new GMS Strategic Framework for 2012-2022. The next phase of the GMS Program is anchored on development of GMS economic corridors through multisector investments and will be dealing increasingly with software issues.

Partners were pleased that the Program aims to strengthen appropriate links to the broader regional integration agenda, particularly that of the ASEAN Economic Community. They

also agreed with the need for objective assessment of results and impact of the Program under the new Strategic Framework.

A good results framework would also facilitate prioritization by working groups, enhancing implementation effectiveness.

The

Development

Partners

Meeting

recognized

that

implementation of the new GMS Strategic Framework would have important implications for the Program, foremost of which is the need to develop a robust knowledge platform and partnerships to deal with the greater complexity of secondgeneration cooperation initiatives. Associated with this is the increased need for more substantive capacity building for the member countries.

The meeting explored several modalities to address these challenges, including the establishment of a GMS knowledge platform to support the analytic work requirements for the GMS Program, and for establishing and strengthening knowledge partnerships with development partners. It is envisaged that the knowledge platform will be steered by the GMS Senior Officials, with support from the GMS Secretariat. The knowledge platform will also utilize regional knowledge networks, and regional research institutions and encourage twinning arrangements between GMS institutions and counterparts in other countries. Resources would need to be mobilized to support the

knowledge platform. In this regard, it was agreed to use the Regional Master Plan formulation to pilot the knowledge platform, with initial funding through ADB regional technical assistance.

The meeting also underscored the need to continuously support capacity building of the GMS countries to be able to cope with the enhanced knowledge management requirements of the new SF and ensure positive results. The highly successful Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management was discussed as an example of such capacity building initiatives.

In summary, the GMS countries appreciated the significant contribution of development partners to the achievements of the GMS Program under the current GMS Strategic Framework. Going forward, the Development Partners Meeting reiterated the importance of harmonizing the partners development approaches for the subregion, and that continued support and active engagement of development partners would be critical to the successful implementation of the new SF. Increasing focus on the software aspects of cooperation under the new GMS SF would require more complex analytical work and mechanisms for knowledge management and partnerships, as well as

enhanced capacity building for the GMS countries. GMS countries welcome enhanced development partners support to address these challenges. We recommend that this report on the Development Partners Meeting be considered for adoption by the Ministers.

Thank you for your kind attention.