Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin will join the fourth Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Leaders’ Meeting via video conference next week, said an informed government source.

Srettha will join Chinese Premier Li Qiang and other riparian colleagues online to discuss the progress made under the MLC framework over the years. Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia are the other MLC members. The leaders will also work on new plans of action, according to the source.

During the summit, Myanmar will hand over the co-chairmanship of MLC to Thailand. The leaders’ meeting will be convened on Christmas Day. As is well known, Thailand was the original initiator of the MLC back in 2005.

Since its establishment seven years ago, the MLC cooperative framework has made progress on many issues that impact livelihoods along the river. Top of the agenda for their discussions will be the water resource management crisis, connectivity, agriculture poverty reduction, and health and environmental protection.

Thailand has been actively utilizing the MLC Special Fund, with more than 40 projects approved up to now covering a wide range of fields that promote subregional development and improve livelihoods.

Earlier this month, the MLC foreign ministers met in Beijing, where they discussed regional stability and prosperity. They highlighted the growth of new competitiveness in the region, as well as areas related to integrated development, environmental protection, technological innovation, security governance, and people-to-people exchanges.

by Thai PBS World