Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai left Hanoi Monday morning to attend the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit slated for June 4-5 in China's Yunnan province.

Khai, accompanied by Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc and four deputy ministers at Foreign Affairs, Transport, Industry, Agriculture and Rural Development, is scheduled to meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday.

On the occasion of the GMS Summit, some 50 local enterprises have registered to go to Kunming, Yunnan's capital city, to seek partners and business opportunities.

The summit aims to create more favorable conditions for further economic cooperation among GMS members, namely China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and rapidly turn the subregion into a prosperous area in Southeast Asia.

GMS members have worked together for closer economic ties by speeding up the implementation of the GMS Economic Cooperation Program (GMS Program) since it was initiated by the Asian Development Bank in 1992.

Under the GMS Program, the six participating countries have prioritized over 100 projects in eight sectors, including investment, trade, transport, tourism, telecommunications, energy, environment and human resource development, which have helped promote the sub-regional economic integration by increasing connectivity through infrastructure development and multilateral agreements.

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 make it a new frontier for economic growth in Asia, said the Asian Development Bank.

Source: Xinhua