Green Mekong Forum (Overview)

June 24, 2011

(Japanese)

1. The Green Mekong Forum which was co-hosted by the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Government of Japan was held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 24 June 2011. The Forum was presided over by Mr. Surasak Chuasukonthip, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and Mr. Kimihiro Ishikane, Deputy Director-General for the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The participants were representatives from the agencies concerned from the members of Mekong-Japan Cooperation, namely, Japan, the Kingdom of Thailand, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Representatives from private sector from both Thailand and Japan as well as the Japanese local authorities also participated.
2. The initiative of this Forum was proposed in the "Action Plan for 'A Decade toward the Green Mekong' Initiative", adopted at the Second Mekong-Japan Summit in October 2010 in Hanoi, with an aim to follow up on activities undertaken by Japan and the Mekong region countriesin order to implement the Action Plan.
3. Japan and the Mekong region countries informed the Forum of the significant progress of the Action Plan and exchanged views on the following issues:
   • Sustainable Forest Management
   • Water resource management
   • Disaster Prevention and Response to Disasters
   • Improvement of Urban Environment
   • Conservation of Biodiversity
   • Controlling and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission
4. For further development of the "public and private cooperation approach", which has been emphasised in the Action Plan, Japan invited Japanese local authorities (Yokohama City, Kitakyushu City) and the private sector (JGC CORPORATION (NIKKI K.K.), JFE Engineering Corporation) to demonstrate the Japanese environmental technologies, while Thailand invited experts from related public (Royal Forest Department and Department of Water Resource, MNRE) and non-governmental (Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation – TGO) agencies to give presentations on Thailand's environmental measures. Other participants from the private sector include representatives from Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC). The public and private cooperation, including the engagement of local communities, was highlighted as crucial to the tackling of environmental and climate change issues in the Mekong region.
5. Japan and the Mekong regions countries reaffirmed the importance of the Mekong-Japan Cooperation towards the realisation of "Green Mekong", i.e. rich in biodiversity, resilient to natural disasters, blessed with sustainable water and forest resources, and achieved both environmental protection and economic growth.
6. The outcome of the Forum will be reported to the Fourth Mekong-Japan Foreign Minister's Meeting in July 2011 and the Third Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting in November 2011, both to be held in Indonesia.