During his official visit to Indonesia, Executive Director of Mekong Institute (MI), Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, had a productive meeting with officials from the ASEAN Secretariat’s Initiative for ASEAN Integration & Narrowing Development Gap (IAI & NDG) Division, led by Ms. Sumitra Jayaseelan, the Assistant Director. They explored possible collaboration on the implementation plan of the Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV) Development Framework and discussed how MI could provide knowledge and technical support, including conducting a socialization workshop for the framework. 

Previously, MI was commissioned by the ASEAN Secretariat to lead the process of formulating an implementation plan of the CLMV Framework for Development, which aims to provide a unifying strategy for CLMV to work towards attaining the middle-income goal by 2030. The work was completed in 2022.

MI also tabled for discussion the idea of engaging in the IAI Task Force and the CLMV Senior Economic Officers’ Meeting (SEOM) as a technical and knowledge partner. The proposal was well received. Both sides look forward to continuing the discussion on the concrete arrangements in the near future.