The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will hold an inaugural meeting of Mekong Environment Ministers in Shanghai, China, on May 25, said ADB in a news release on Tuesday.

The meeting, which will be chaired by ADB vice-president Jin Liqun, will bring together about 80 senior environment officials from the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam -- to discuss and evaluate achievements in environmental cooperation and discuss future directions in environment and natural resource management.

The meeting is expected to finalize and endorse the implementation of the GMS Core Environment Program, a systematic and integrated program to sustain shared natural resources in the GMS, as well as the establishment of an Environment Operations Center, which will act as the secretariat for the program.

It will also discuss the implementation of the GMS Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative (BCI) to protect high value terrestrial biodiversity conservation landscapes.

The BCI aims to help establish sustainable management regimes and restore ecological (habitat) connectivity and integrity within a selected set of important biodiversity areas.

The meeting is expected to issue a joint statement by the ministers in support of sustainable management of natural resources and the environment.

"The rapid economic growth being experienced by the Mekong countries will have implications on the environment, and we need to take collective action to manage the externalities in an effective manner," said Urooj Malik, a Director in ADB's Mekong Department.

"ADB believes that with strong partnerships and political will,the GMS countries, together with other stakeholders, can meet the challenge of addressing the pressures on ecosystems, achieving sustainable use and conservation of natural resources," he added. Jin Liqun, Xie Zhenhua, chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency of China, and Shafquat Kakahel, deputy executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), will give keynote addresses during the meeting.

The GMS Program began in 1992 as an ADB initiative to promote closer economic ties and cooperation among the countries sharing the Mekong River.

Covering 2.3 million square kilometers, or the size of western Europe, the GMS is home to more than 250 million people. Its wealth of human and natural resources makes it a new frontier for economic growth in Asia, said ADB.

Source: Xinhua