CamEd Open Access Repository

Faculty Publications  | Volume 1     |    Number 1   |  January-June 2016   |    Pages 13 – 37

Received: January 2016   |  Published unedited: June 2016  

SUMMARY

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Program is a program initiated in 1992 by Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC, specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), the Laos People’s Democratic Republic (Laos), Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam to enhance regional economic development of the GMS and the economic relations of its member states with assistance of the ADB. The GMS is a natural economic area bound together by the Mekong River, and it enfolds a geographical area of 2.6 million square kilometer. Just around 326 million people live within this area. Even that the program in general covers nine sectors like agriculture, energy, environment, human-resource development, investment, telecommunications, tourism, transport infrastructure, and transport and trade facilitation, we focus our considerations, mostly on the main objectives of the GMS program: the connectivity and competitiveness of the member regions, which can be achieved primarily through the improvement of transport infrastructure and trade facilitation.