DEPUTY MINISTER VUONG DUY BIEN PARTICIPATED AT CLMVT FORUM 2016: TOWARDS A SHARED PROSPERITY

Under the authorization of Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien, at the invitation of Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, Deputy Minister Vuong Duy Bien heads the official delegation of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Viet Nam to participate at “CLMVT Forum 2016: Towards a Shared Prosperity”, held from 16^th - 18^th June 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand. Present at the event are leaders of some relevant ministries, sectors, scientists, experts, companies and media from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. This event is organized under the initiative of Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to enhance cooperation between Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam in many fields, with special attention extended to tourism, trade, investment, finance, transportation, technologies, and science.

In the Opening Ceremony organized solemnly in 16^th June 2016, Thai Prime Minister confirms the available strength of countries in the CLMVT framework, with their advantageous geo-political position, young and dynamic labour force, as well as strong development potentials of this mechanism in many other fields, propose these countries to further enhance practical cooperation results in CLMVT mechanism, ensuring fast, sustainable and quality development of countries in the region.

In the next agendas, the Forum is divided into specific sessions, such as “Unleashing CLMVT: Global Perspective on CLMVT Potentials”, “Enabling Trade and Investment in CLMVT: Roles of Banking and Finance in Regional Development”, “Unlocking CLMVT: Creating a Single, Seamless Region”, “Stepping up Intra-CLMVT and Border Trade: What should be done to reach our potentials on trade?”, “CLMVT opportunities in investment: Enhancing our strengths and joining the global value chain”, “Seamless Travel in CLMVT: Free Movement of Tourists?”…

In the panel discussions, delegates have exchanged many viewpoints on cooperation between countries in specific fields, proposing measures to remove difficulties and barriers in regional cooperation, maximizing the available resources, taking full use of the support and cooperation of other countries and mechanisms and exchanging directions, measures to enhance regional cooperation in the coming time. Especially, the Forum creates favourable conditions for delegates in the private sector to inform representatives of the government, ministries, sectors of countries in the region about wishes, proposals to fulfill regulations, supporting the development of the companies in the region, especially start-up companies.

Under the specific discussions on regional tourism cooperation, ministers responsible for tourism of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Viet Nam and Thailand discussed and exchanged many related contents, such as developing tourism infrastructure, improving road and air connectivity between countries in the region, increasing travel facilitation for tourists, paying attention to tourism statistics and forecast for tourism development in the region, developing tourism human resources, working with each other in promoting and introducing CLMVT tourism in big regional and international events, enhancing information and experience exchange, attracting tourists from third countries, strengthening cooperation between the state and private sector, creating favourable conditions for the development of the enterprises.

In the discussions, Deputy Minister Vuong Duy Bien highlights CLMVT tourism cooperation results over the past time, requesting member states to enhance practical development of the tourism industry in the region, with specific actions and solutions, focusing on joint tourism product development, enhancing connectivity, ensuring the effectiveness of tourism statistics, collecting tourism data, in which indicating that the correct tourism statistics will result in appropriate evaluation on practical situation, thus providing suitable solutions for the development of the tourism industry in the region.

In the discussions, Deputy Minister also informs and invites ministers responsible for tourism of other countries to participate at big tourism events hosted by Viet Nam in the future, such as Da Nang International Travel Mart 2016 from 24-26 June 2016, International conference on tourism and sports, held in September 2016 in Da Nang city, International Travel Expo Ho Chi Minh city 2016, organized in September 2016 in Ho Chi Minh city and the Opening Ceremony of Visit Viet Nam Year 2017, tentatively organized in the 1^st quarter of 2017 in Lao Cai province.

Under the framework of the Forum, Deputy Minister Vuong Duy Bien also joins bilateral talks with Minister of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar, Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand and Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam in Thailand.

Trịnh Quốc Anh