9th Informal Development Partners Meeting (June 24, 2021)

Phnom Penh: Excellency So Sophort, Secretary General of Cambodia National Mekong Committee (CNMC) and Member of the MRC Joint Committee for Cambodia (MRC JC), led a Group of Inter-Ministerial representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Mine and Energy, and Excellency Deputies Secretary Generals, Excellency Advisor to CNMC and all Directors of Departments under the CNMC General Secretariat attended the 9th Informal Development Partners Meeting via Video Conference.

The Meeting was chaired by the Lao PDR (host) as the Chairperson of the MRC Joint Committee for 2021 and was attended by Delegates from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, Representatives of Development Partners such as EU, French (AFD), Germany (GIZ), Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, USA, Luxembourg, Flanders, World Bank and the Chief Executive Officer and other key staff of the MRC Secretariat.

The Meeting reviewed and discussed the progresses of Completion Report of the MRC Strategic Plan 2016-2020, the implementation of the Basin Development Strategy 2021-2030, including the preparation of the NIPs 2021-2025 with potential support of DPs, the Implementation of MRC Procedures, the Cooperation with DPs, the progress and update of Rules of Procedures for the MRC Council, Joint Committee, MRCS and other Code of Conducts, Fraud Prevention and Anti-corruption Mechanism, recruitment of 3rd riparian CEO , Plan for recruitment of the new batch of the MRCS Staff.

The Meeting also reviewed and discussed on the progress on the implementation of the Strategy for Basin-wide Environmental Management and potential support of DPs, Progress on the finalization of the Sustainable Hydropower Development Strategy (SHDS), Preliminary Design Guidance (PDG) for Mainstream Hydropower Dams, and Transboundary Environmental Impacts Assessment (TbEIA), the Join Environment Monitoring (JEM), the review and establishment of the Core River Monitoring Network, on the Proactive Regional Planning, and the enhancement of Data and Information Management Systems.

In the occasion of the Meeting at the Headquarter of MRCS in Vientiane, Lao PDR, there was the Signing Ceremony (1) Grant Agreement between the MRC and Australia, (2) Grant Agreement between the MRC and Germany, and (3) Grant Agreement between the MRC and Switzerland.