Mekong–Ganga Cooperation

Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC)
Members • Observers
Membership		6 member states
Establishment		November 10, 2000

Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) was established on November 10, 2000 at Vientiane in the First MGC Ministerial Meeting. It comprises six Member countries namely, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. They emphasised four areas of cooperation, which are tourism, culture, education, and transportation linkage in order to be solid foundation for future trade and investment cooperation in the region.

Annual Ministerial Meetings

The working mechanism for MGC consists of the Annual Ministerial Meeting (back to back with ASEAN Ministerial Meeting), the Senior Official’s Meeting, and the five Working Groups namely;

• Working Group on Tourism (Thailand is the lead country)
• Working Group on Education (HRD) (India is the lead country)
• Working Group on Culture (Cambodia is the lead country)
• Working Group on Communication & Transportation (Lao PDR is the lead country)
• Working Group on Plan of Actions (Vietnam is the lead country)

Second MGC Ministerial Meeting

At the Second MGC Ministerial Meeting held in Hanoi on July 28, 2001, the member countries adopted the Hanoi Programme of Action affirming their commitment to cooperate in four areas of cooperation. The “Hanoi Programme of Action” has 6 years timeframe from 2001 to 2007 and the progress of its implementation shall be reviewed every two years.

Third MGC Ministerial Meeting

At the Third MGC Ministerial Meeting held in Phnom Penh on June 20 2003, the member countries adopted the Phnom Penh Road Map as a plan to accelerate the implementation of all MGC projects and activities.

Fourth MGC Ministerial Meeting

Fourth MGC Ministerial Meeting was held January 12, 2007 at Sebu. In this meeting Thailand has handed over the chairmanship of MGC to India. There was no Ministerial Meeting in 2002 and 2004 because the AMM meeting was held in Brunei and Indonesia respectively.

See Also

• ASEAN–India Free Trade Area
• Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
• Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia