On 21 October 2013, the Governments of Thailand and Japan co-hosted the 2nd Green Mekong Forum in Bangkok. The Forum’s aim was to follow up on activities undertaken by Japan and the Mekong region countries in implementing the “Action Plan for ‘A Decade toward the Green Mekong’ Initiative”, which was adopted by the leaders of the Japan and the Mekong region countries at the 2nd Mekong-Japan Summit in October 2010 in Hanoi.

Co-chairing the event were Mr. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Director General, Department of International Economics Affairs, and Mr. Hidenao Yanagi, Deputy Director-General for the Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Participants included representatives from the relevant agencies of the member countries of Mekong-Japan Cooperation, i.e., Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam. Representatives from the Thai and Japanese private sectors, as well as Japanese local authorities, also took part.

Japan and the Mekong region countries exchanged views on the six issues listed in the Action Plan: 1) improvement of urban environments, 2) water resource management, 3) sustainable forest management, 4) disaster prevention and response to disasters, 5) conservation of biodiversity and 6) controlling/reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Another session was also held on “Economic Development and Environmental Conservation”, which focused on promoting economic development with environmental awareness.

At these sessions, JICA, Japanese local authorities (Kitayushu City) and private sector representative (JGC Corporation (Nikki K.K.) and Kobelco Eco-Solutions Co., Ltd.) introduced environmental technologies and presented their efforts to develop the public-private partnership approach emphasized in the Action Plan. Thai experts from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also gave presentations on Thailand’s environmental protection measures. The participating countries reaffirmed the importance of public-private cooperation in tackling environmental and climate change-related issues in the Mekong region, particularly through sharing information and exchanging views among government agencies, local governments and the private sector.

Japan and the Mekong region countries also reaffirmed that they would continue efforts based on the “Action Plan for “A Decade toward the Green Mekong’ Initiative” towards the realization of a “Green Mekong”’ rich in biodiversity, resilient to natural disasters, blessed with sustainable water and forest resources, and successful in both environment protection and economic growth. They reaffirmed the importance of the Green Mekong Forum in following up on these efforts, and pledged to further improve it. The outcome of the Forum will be reported to the 5th Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting in December 2013 in Tokyo.