gms meeting 12jun2

Story Filed: Saturday, June 08, 2002 9:41 AM EST

KUNMING, Jun 8, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Great Mekong Subregion (GMS) Cooperation Meeting of Senior Officials opened here Saturday with participants from China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar and the Asian Development Bank.

Participants reviewed the progress of the GMS cooperation projects in the past year and made preparations for the GMS Summit Meeting to be held in early November this year in Phnom Penh.

Niu Shaoyao, vice-governor of Yunnan Province, said at the opening ceremony that the Chinese government and Yunnan Province would continue to take an active part in the various cooperative activities and promote economic growth and common prosperity in this region.

The GMS cooperation program was initiated in 1992 by the Asian Development Bank, together with concerted efforts from China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In the past decade, the program has launched about 100 cooperative projects covering infrastructure, transport, energy resources and telecommunications, raising up to one billion U.S. dollars for these related countries