Mekong Countries Join Forces in Tourism

Hanoi, Sep 17 (Prensa Latina) Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar examine this Monday joining forces to attract 25 million foreign tourists from 2013 to 2015 and at least get four million in exchange of visitors.

  The ambitious project arose from a conference of ministers from the three countries and Myanmar's ambassador in Hanoi held in Ho Chi Minh City this weekend.

They all reviewed the implementation of a joint declaration from 2010 to promote joint cooperation of the CLMV, as the group is called, in the development of smokeless industry, which has gradually grown.

Last year, the four countries received a total of about 12 million international visitors, an increase of 14.5 percent compared to 2010, of which about two million had toured among each of them.

To achieve the set goal, they considered the issue of a common view, also extended to Thailand, the fifth Mekong's riverside of the subregion, after Bangkok and Phnom Penh, once a bilateral agreement in this regard is made effective.

The new plan drawn by the four countries specifies the increase of the information exchange, the joint development of tourism products of high quality, the promotion of more investments in the sector and staff training.

They also agreed to hold annual ministerial conferences, with one edition in Cambodia to continue coordinating actions.

They stressed the support received from organizations such as the Association Centers of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Japan and ASEAN-South Korea and the Asian Development Bank.

The meeting was recently carried out under the auspices of the International Travel Expo, Ho Chi Minh City 2012, with press coverage of Russia, Egypt, Australia, Sweden, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Sourced: plenglish