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(TITC) – On July 28, in Dong Ha City – Quang Tri Province, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST) and People’s Committee of Quang Tri Province organized the conference in Tourism, Economic Development Co-operation in East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC).
Attending the event were leaders of MoCST, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism- Lao PDR, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Myanmar Embassy in Vietnam, People’s Committee of Quang Tri Province; representatives of relevant ministries and provinces, provincial governments in EWEC as well as scientists, economic-tourism managers and tourism businesses.
The EWEC is one of the three economic corridor initiatives in the framework of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) cooperation initiated by the Asian Development Bank and Japan.
It was adopted at the 8th GMS Ministerial Meeting held in the Philippines in October 1998 and included in the Hanoi Action Programme at the 6th ASEAN Summit in December 1998.
The 1,450km corridor starts from Mawlomyine port city of Myanmar and runs through Thailand and Laos, entering Vietnam via the Lao Bao International Border Gate in Quang Tri Province and ends at Tien Sa Port in Da Nang City. The EWEC has brought practical and long-term benefits to its member countries as well as opened up cooperation opportunities in various fields for localities it runs through.
Presentations in the conference focused on: assessing potential and advantage of Quang Tri in economic – tourism development; identifying the scientific foundation for EWEC localities to develop local policies and appropriate solutions to develop social – economic activities, attract investment, enhance human resource; strengthening cooperation between Quang Tri with other provinces to effectively exploit EWEC potential.
They also pointed out that, at present EWEC is merely playing the role of a transport corridor, but economic one. Even as a transport corridor, there in fact still exist some problems limiting travelers and goods flows in EWEC such as entry and exit procedures, the difference in working time of border gates between countries, right-handed cars ....
MoCST’s Deputy Minister Le Khanh Hai confirmed that provinces should join to exploit EWEC potential, advantages and opportunities for economic benefit, tourism and service development; enhancing human resource, administration reform, adopting policies to facilitate travel in the region, connect international tourism programmes with Vietnam tours as “Central Heritage Road”, “Legendary Route”, “Return to old battlefield”…
Mr. Hai also asked Quang Tri Province to build social economic development strategy, especially on trade, tourism and services consistent with the overall development strategy of whole region, focusing on building detailed plans on tourism zones, routes, destinations, infrastructure investment and marketing campaigns…
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