Thailand to host Lower Mekong Regional Working Group meeting

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will host the 7th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Regional Working Group (RWG) Meeting on 29-30 January 2015 at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel, Bangkok. The topics of discussion includes cooperation in public health, connectivity, education, environment and water, agriculture and food security, and energy security. For this occasion, Thailand and the United States will co-host the Working Group Meetings on Education and Energy Security. The meeting will also host a discussion on the cross-cutting issues of Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. It will also be the first time for the Eminent and Expert Persons Group (EEPG) to meet and discuss on the recommendations for achieving sustainability in the region. The participants for this meeting will include officials from the six Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) countries, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States of America, along with the representatives from the Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM), including Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mekong River Commission (MRC), ASEAN Secretariat, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The LMI framework has been established reduce the development gap among the ASEAN countries to facilitate the implementation of the ASEAN Community's integration. Thailand and the United States are development partners to the LMI to promote sustainable development in the region, including projects on education, public health, energy, and human resources development.