US deputy chief of mission Patrick Murphy, Office of the Higher Education Commission official Luksmon Smansin and the director of Chulalongkorn University’s Language Institute, Assistant Professor Dr Kulaporn Hiranburana, will preside over the opening ceremony of the Lower MekongInitiative (LMI) Professional Communication Skills for Leaders forum. The two-day event will be held at the Mandarin Hotel in Bangkok starting on Wednesday.

Forty-five mid-level government officials from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam will attend. They will practise the skills they learned at English-language professional communication seminars that they recently completed.

The participants will give presentations, polish their meeting skills and network with their counterparts and colleagues from the LMI countries.

The goal of the US-government-backed initiative is to strengthen institutional links and mechanisms for cooperation among LMI countries and with other regional and international institutions