LUANG PRABANG — State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Dec 17 that the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) countries have identified six directions of development for future cooperation.

Addressing a news conference following “the 4th Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting,” Wang said the six directions include jointly building LMC Economic Development Belt, carrying out cooperation on production capacity, enhancing innovation cooperation, giving priority to improvement of people’s livelihood, deepening environmental protection, and upholding openness and inclusiveness.

On joint building the LMC Economic Development Belt, Wang said the six LMC countries, namely China, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam could rely on the Lancang-Mekong golden waterway, utilize key industrial towns and major infrastructure projects so as to enhance the quality, raise the efficiency and seek upgrading of the subregion’s economic development.

Regarding cooperation on production capacity, he noted that the LMC countries could seek the establishment of a production capacity cooperation alliance, setting up of cooperation funds, and pushing forward the building of production capacity cooperation parks.

On innovation cooperation, Wang mentioned the sharing of new technology, promotion of digital infrastructure and innovation capability, and speeding up of the development of cross border e-commerce, among others.

On giving priority to improvement of people’s livelihood, he said that new projects on education, poverty reduction, medical services and safety of major dams will be implemented to benefit the peoples.

Talking about strengthening environmental protection cooperation, Wang noted pragmatic cooperation will be carried out in environmental improvement, biodiversity protection and other areas.

On openness and inclusiveness, he said LMC could enhance exchanges with other cooperation mechanisms in the subregion to achieve complementarity and coordinated development.