SECRETARY CLINTON: (In
progress.) The United States is proud of the work we are doing together
in the LMI. It is a key component of our ongoing cooperation with ASEAN
and efforts to spur regional integration and close the development gap.
It’s also a key component of our larger strategy in Asia, where we are
working with partners to expand security, promote economic development,
and strengthen people-to-people ties.
We created this forum three
and a half years ago because we saw great potential in coming together
to solve challenges in health, infrastructure, the environment, and
education. And we saw an opportunity to create an action-oriented group
that is inclusive but also flexible. So far, through the LMI, we’ve
improved the way we measure the effects of climate change, started
sharing best practices in the management of great rivers like the
Mekong, expanded opportunities for workers in key areas to learn
English, just to name a few areas of collaboration.
Today we are taking several steps that build on the work we’ve already done together.
First,
because we recognize that our efforts must continue to evolve if we are
going to advance the aspirations of our people, we are reorganizing
some of our work.
Vietnam will co-chair a strengthened Pillar on
Environment and Water which will include a broader focus on sanitation,
flood management, urban water supplies, and related issues.
Our
colleagues from Nay Pyi Taw will co-chair a new Agriculture and Food
Security Pillar which will further our collective efforts to sustain
food security for people throughout the Mekong region.
And in line
with one of ASEAN’s top priorities, we are building a Connectivity
Pillar co-chaired by Laos which will focus not only on how best to build
roads and power lines, but also how to close the so-called digital
divide and strengthen ties among our institutions and people.
Second,
we have begun discussions about establishing a group of outside
independent experts who could offer fresh thinking on subregional
integration, sustainable development, economic competitiveness, and
other areas of mutual interest.
And finally, I am delighted to
announce a new, long-term commitment by the United States to support the
Lower Mekong Initiative. As part of our Asia Pacific Security
Engagement Initiative, we are launching LMI 2020. As the name implies,
it is a multiyear vision for how the United States can help each of our
partners together as well as individually to build a more prosperous
region through each of the LMI pillars.
For example, as part of
LMI 2020, we will support a new partnership between the Government of
Vietnam and Harvard University to train the region’s next generation of
public policy experts and leaders in key areas. Other efforts under LMI
2020 will ramp up the fight against malaria and climate change.
Initially, we will seek to invest $50 million in LMI 2020 over the next
three years. This is in addition to the bilateral support we already
provide each of the countries here around the table.
Now, I want
to be very clear. We think this initiative has great potential, but it
can only be successful if we have the full participation of all the
partners, because we need your ideas and we need your very constructive
and candid dialogue with us. So we are developing an LMI coordinating
network, and as the first step we will set up a coordination hub at the
USAID Mission in Bangkok. And it’s time to move the center of LMI closer
to the Mekong River so that we can enhance cooperation and
connectivity.
LMI 2020 also touches on the serious questions of
building dams along the main stem of the Mekong. And I want to thank the
Foreign Minister from Lao PDR for the excellent meetings we had when I
was just there with your government. In the past, I have urged partner
countries to pause on any considerations to build new dams until
everyone could fully assess their impact. Some studies have explored the
benefits of generating electricity, but questions – serious questions –
remain about the effects on fisheries, agriculture, livelihoods,
environment, and health.
So through LMI 2020, we are prepared to
commit up to $1 million, along with other donors, to support studies on
these unanswered questions. We will also help the Mekong River
Commission build up its technical capacity through an additional $2
million grant for its work on sustainable fisheries and rural
livelihoods.
Later today, I will also raise the issue of dams with
the Friends of the Lower Mekong, because other donors can and should
support this work as well.
So I hope the actions that I’ve
described today will be further evidence of American commitment to the
people of this region. We’re proud to be your partners, enduring
partners as you promote security and prosperity, and we look forward to
many years of working together.
Now I would like to ask the Assistant Administrator from USAID Nisha Biswal to make a few remarks.
____________________________________________________________
Remarks at the Second Friends of the Lower Mekong Ministerial
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Peace Palace
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
July 13, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank
you so much for being here for the Friends of the Lower Mekong meeting,
and let me begin by thanking our host, the Government of Cambodia.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, thank you so
much. There are many familiar faces from last year’s meeting as well as a
few new ones. I’d like to welcome our colleagues from the nonprofit
organizations and academic institutions who are joining us for the first
time this year. I know we will benefit from your insights. And as I
said in the ministerial meeting of the Lower Mekong Initiative just a
few minutes ago, we’re very pleased to have our latest new member, and
we are looking forward to working with the officials in Nay Pyi Taw on
so many of these important initiatives. And we’re pleased that the
Foreign Minister could be with us.
We are here because each of us
supports the evolution of a strong ASEAN as the anchor for stability and
prosperity in the Asia Pacific. And as ASEAN itself has made clear, in
order to reach that goal, we need to narrow the development gap among
member-states and improve regional integration throughout the Mekong
subregion. So when our fellow members of the Lower Mekong Initiative
came to us and suggested creating a new group that would coordinate the
efforts of many donors and institutions who provide assistance in this
region, we were eager to help. After all, the development community has
been talking for years about how we need to improve donor coordination
and support country ownership of assistance programs. In creating the
Friends of the Lower Mekong, we saw an opportunity to show that we are
backing up our word with action.
For the United States, the
Friends of the Lower Mekong is just one part of our long-term commitment
to the region. I announced earlier today that we are launching a series
of new programs which we’re calling LMI 2020 that will support each of
the initiative’s pillars. Initially, we seek to invest $50 million over
three years in LMI 2020, and that is in addition to the bilateral
assistance we already provide. This funding will help train the region’s
next generation of public policy experts and leaders, ramp up the fight
against malaria, promote innovation and sound policies for sustainable
infrastructure, focus on many of the problems that the nations
represented here have brought to our attention.
Now, of course,
each of the governments and organizations around the table could tell a
similar story about your contributions. And we think in order to have
maximum impact, we need to coordinate all of our efforts. And the
question we face is how to do that most effectively. Today I want to
propose a two-track structure for the Friends of the Lower Mekong that
will help us make the most of our efforts.
One track would be a
dialogue among partner countries, aid agencies, NGOs, and the
multilateral development institutions, building on the principles that
were adopted in Paris, Accra, and Busan. We would expand information
sharing, support efforts to strengthen country ownership, and encourage
emerging donors to commit to delivering results with accountability and
transparency.
The other track would consist of the dialogues we
were already having at the level of senior officials and ministers. Our
respective donor agencies would also be party to those discussions, and
the agenda could include human security challenges that cross national
boundaries, such as the impact of hydropower, development, environmental
degradation, climate change, health, infrastructure development,
trafficking in drugs and human beings, and migration.
Today I
would ask the FLM ministers to endorse these two tracks as steps we will
take to better results for the people of the region.
And finally,
I would like to emphasize the importance of supporting the Mekong River
Commission. The Mekong River Basin is one of the world’s most
productive ecosystems. It’s really a miracle of the way it operates in
this region. Millions – tens, hundreds of millions of people – depend
directly or indirectly on it for their livelihoods. But it is also
extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change and infrastructure
development. That’s why it’s important that national and regional
strategies be based on sound scientific assessments of any impact that
could be forthcoming.
The United States believes that the Mekong
River Commission is the best forum for facilitating these assessments.
Earlier today I announced we are prepared to commit up to $1 million to
support the commission studies on sustainable management and development
of the Mekong River which will look at, among other things, the
potential impact of future dams on the main stem of the river. I had an
excellent series of discussions with the Government of Lao PDR, and I
thank the Minister, the Prime Minister for those discussions.
And
we have twinned the Mekong River Commission with the Mississippi River
Commission, because I’ll be very honest with you; we made a lot of
mistakes. Just to be very blunt about it, we started more than a hundred
years ago, so we’ve learned some hard lessons about what happens when
you make certain infrastructure decisions. And I think that we all can
contribute to helping the nations of the Mekong region avoid the
mistakes that we and others made. And I think it’s important that the
Friends of the Lower Mekong support these studies and support the Mekong
River Commission.
Because after all, our ultimate goal is to
support the countries of this region as you work to provide your people
with a better future. And that does include good schools, health care,
electricity, economic opportunity, connectivity. And if we work
together, I believe that we can contribute to the extraordinary progress
we see taking place here in the Lower Mekong Region.
So thank you all for being with us, and thank you for being committed to this important effort.
