(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-30 13:46

VIENTIANE - The Greater Mekong Sub-region ( GMS) Youth Forum opened here Sunday to discuss how to offer wider access to information technology, educational and employment opportunities, healthcare services for youths, and better protecting environment.

At the opening of the one-day forum attended by 37 young people, Khamphan Sithidampha, General Secretary of the Central Committee of Lao People's Revolutionary Youth Union said, "The GMS Youth Forum is a milestone and symbolic event, which will enhance cooperation and collaboration of youths among the six nations in the Mekong sub-region.

"In addition, it will support the 3Cs (connectivity, competitiveness, and community) strategic pillars in the Mekong sub-region, namely: increased connectivity, improved competitiveness and enhanced sense of community," he added.

After the forum, the 37 youths are scheduled to meet with prime ministers of the six Mekong countries -- Laos, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand -- and Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda, and hand over the GMS Youth Message to them.

They are expected to ask the leaders to expand access to modern information and communication technology, especially for young people in rural areas, empower them to productively partake in highly competitive labor markets, offer wider access to healthcare services and effectively battle emerging communicable diseases, create more jobs, better protect environment, and preserve and promote cultural values and identities.    

The 37 youths started on March 22 their five-day journeys on three caravan trips along the GMS's North-South, East-West, and Southern economic corridors, experiencing firsthand "the 3 Cs" of connectivity, competitiveness, and community.

During the two-day 3rd GMS Summit in Vientiane from March 30-31, GMS leaders and representatives from international organizations like the ADB are to touch upon connectivity and competitiveness issues such as the establishment of transport corridors, power interconnection systems and telecommunications networks, improvement of infrastructure links, and measures to facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and services.

The six countries sharing the Mekong River kicked off in 1992 their GMS Program which involves planning and implementing sub- regional projects in nine areas: transport, energy, telecommunications, tourism, environment, human resource development, agriculture, trade facilitation, and private investment.