Southwest China's Yunnan province is busy preparing for the second leaders' meeting on economic cooperation in Greater Mekong subregion to be held in July.

Xu Rongkai, governor of Yunnan Province, said this meeting offers a great opportunity to step up the cooperation between all countries of Greater Mekong Subregion and Asia Development Bank, which initiated this cooperation mechanism in 1992.

This meeting is important for China to promote its relationships with neighboring countries, said Xu, who is also deputy-director of the meeting's organizing committee.

Xu called on the departments at various levels to take the meeting seriously and put into place the government's overall arrangement.

The Greater Mekong subregion, also named Lancang-Mekong subregion, refers to an area of 2.33 million square km, covering China's Yunnan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. With a population of 230 million, the area boasts abundant natural resources and huge growth potential.

Yunnan has cooperated for a long time with the countries in this subregion on transportation, energy, agriculture, tourism, trade, investment, environment and human resources. The year 2004 saw their trade volume totaling 1.05 billion US dollars, up 204 percent from the year 2000.

Source: Xinhua