Countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries need to make better use of the private sector and high technology to boost their sustainmable development, said Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. “The GMS economies need to reveal new drivers for development amid a transformation of the world economy and development environment,” he said at the Plenary Meeting of the GMS Business Summit.

The first-ever business summit was a part of the sixth GMS Summit in the context of the GMS Community celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The GMS includes five Asean countries (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar) and the Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of China.

With a total population of 340 million people and total gross domestic product exceeding US$1.3 trillion, the GMS can become a shared economic region, a common market and open up new opportunities for economic development, according to the Prime Minister.

PM Phuc urged GMS member economies to maintain their unique identity as “an effective mechanism to amplify the combined determination and effort of all sides in order to generate new resources to settle differences, broaden and deepen the sphere for economic co-operation.” – Viet Nam News