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13th Working Group on Environment Annual Meeting
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Signing of the Letter of Agreement between the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and ADB.
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The 13th Annual Meeting of the Working Group on Environment (WGE AM-13)
was held on 13-15 June 2007 in Guilin, Guangxi Province, People's Republic of China (PRC).
The meeting was hosted by the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) of PRC
in cooperation with GMS Environment Operation Center and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The meeting participants included delegations from Cambodia, the People's Republic of China,
Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Observers included representatives from the Governments of Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, ADB,
AIT, FAO, IGES, IUCN, MFLU, MRC, SEI, UNEP, WWF, XTBG and three members of the Technical Advisory Panel.
WGE 12 meeting held in April 2006 in Bangkok, recommended that WGE should meet at least twice in a year.
Annual meetings would be forward looking focusing on strategic issues and priorities
whereas semi-annual meeting would focus primarily on program implementation progress review.
Consequently, the Working Group on Environment (WGE) technical meeting was held in Bangkok on December, 2006.
It was decided that the WGE meeting cycle will shift to PRC for 2007
and the 13th WGE Annual Meeting was scheduled for 13-15 June 2007 in Guangxi province.
The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Dingding Tang, Deputy Director General,
Department of International Cooperation, SEPA
and Mr. Urooj S. Malik, Director, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Southeast Asia Department, ADB.
Mr. Zhou Jian, Vice Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, PRC inaugurated the meeting.
In his speech, he emphasized China’s commitment to fostering cooperation within the GMS,
and specifically highlighted the importance of the biodiversity corridor initiative for
environmental improvement and poverty reduction within the subregion.
Mr. Mu Hong, Vice Chairman, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in his welcome note,
drew attention to the significant natural resource and tourism potential within the province
and the role of these sectors in promoting environmental growth in recent years.
The establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and subsequent designation of Nanning
as the host city for the China-ASEAN Expo have made the province a major platform for linking China to other ASEAN countries.
He also pointed out that the province is now pursuing a "One Axis Two Wing" strategic platform
for regional cooperation with the Nanning-Singapore economic corridor
serving as the central axis and the Pan-Beibu Gulf Rim Economic Cooperation Area
and the GMS Economic Cooperation Program serving as the two wings of regional cooperation.
country teams and development partners during the meeting.
Mr. Malik, in his speech discussed the increasing competitiveness of the GMS
in terms of both economic terms and in terms of a growing sense of community within the subregion.
He cautioned, however, that it was important to underpin such progress with renewed efforts to
address emerging concerns such as climate change, water and food security
and their impacts on sustainable development in the region.
The Meeting Agenda, Proceedings and Photo Highlight are available as the links below:
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