The Mekong Institute (MI), Mekong River Commission (MRC) and ASEAN Connectivity had a tripartite meeting on February 12, 2015 at the Office of RMC Secretariat in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The meeting aimed at identifying and discussing areas of possible joint/complementary activities, collaboration and cooperation, as well as exchanging technical information and mapping out the linkages and synergies between the MI’s on-going research project on the Lancang-Mekong International Shipping, MRC Waterborne Transport Master Plan and Master Plan of ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC). 

Mr. Madhuryja Kumar Dutta and Ms. Shan Ni, representing the Lancang-Mekong International Shipping project team, attended the meeting and shared the progress of the project team, attended the meeting and shared the project progress. The participants exchanged their views to seek the close cooperation, particularly between the two sub-regional programmes (MI and MRC). Their linkages to MPAC are vital to the development of intermodal transportation system in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). 

The three parties agreed to collaborate to build in synergies in their current work. In particular, the MRC study team and MI research team will complementarily share research tools and methodologies of their on-going projects, strengthen liaison between the national experts in Thailand and Laos to maximize synergy in data collection, and validate the preliminary finding and results of analyses. The MRC representatives are expected to present their master plan project during the coming Inception Workshop of Mekong-Lancang International Shipping Project at the MI. The MI and MRC will also keep the ASEAN Secretariat in the loop for future consultation and dissemination.