Mekong Institute (MI), with funding support from the People’s Government of Yunnan Province, the People’s Republic of China (P.R. China), rolled out the Communication Skill Capacity Building for Regional Cooperation and Integration in Lancang-Mekong Region training at the MI Residential Training Center in Khon Kaen, Thailand from October 14 to 24, 2019.  

Over 31 government officials from Cambodia, P. R. China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as representatives from state-owned enterprises in Yunnan Province and Khon Kaen, the MI Young Scholar Program and MI office attended the course to strengthen their writing, speaking and listening proficiencies.

“Communications is the engine for effective development,” Mr. Sudam Pawar, MI’s Director of Innovation and Technological Connectivity Department, said during the opening session. He underscored the critical role of communications in strengthening multilateral partnerships in the Lancang-Mekong region.

Mr. Pawar encouraged participants to actively engage in the four-course module, which included a discussion from Dr. Jean-Pierre A. Verbiest, MI’s Policy Advisor, on the political and socioeconomic significance of regional cooperation. Dr. Matthew Robert Ferguson, Mahidol University’s Program Director of English Studies, Humanities and Language Division, also provided theoretical and practical sessions in public speaking and technical writing under the prism of cross-cultural communications.

This was the fourth MI communications training since 2018. The tailored curriculum improved the participants’ skills and helped widened their networks for deeper integration among member countries, as espoused by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and the Greater Mekong Subregional Economic Cooperation Program.