Cambodia has been an active participant in the GMS Program since the Program's inception in 1992. The 11th Ministerial Conference was held in Phnom Penh in September 2002. The First GMS Summit of Leaders was held in Phnom Penh in November 2002. Given its central location in the Lower Mekong Basin, Cambodia is viewed as a key player in deepening economic cooperation among the participating countries in the GMS Program. The Mekong flows through the heart of Cambodia, which also hosts the Tonle Sap Great Lake, a unique ecological system that provides numerous subregional economic benefits, e.g., acting as buffer to annual floods and as spawning ground for various fish species. Cambodia is also at the center of the GMS Southern Economic Corridor, providing a strategic link between Thailand and Viet Nam through regional highways, and, in the future, railway links that form part of the Singapore–Kunming Rail Link Project.

Cambodia is also an active participant of the Development Triangle Initiative with Lao PDR and Viet Nam, and the Emerald Triangle Initiative with Lao PDR and Thailand. Cambodia is a major proponent of the early implementation of trade and transport facilitation measures in the GMS, in particular along the Southern Economic Corridor at the Aranyaprathet– Poipet and Bavet–Moc Bai border crossing points. Cambodia maintains a national secretariat to coordinate GMS program activities at the offices of the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

Read more...