GMS Youth Caravan wrapped up in Bangkok

BANGKOK, December 18 (TNA) - University students from all six member countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) have wrapped up their eight-day tour and will submit the Youth Message to their leaders at the Youth Forum, held as part of the GMS Summit in Bangkok on December 19. During the GMS Youth Caravan, which was organized by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and ended at a workshop in Bangkok on Thursday, 36 regional youngsters synthesized their learning, exchanged ideas with new friends and worked together to formulate the GMS Youth Message, in which they prioritize several issues to ensure a stronger role and a better youth future in the dynamic GMS community. Those issues include developing human resources, reducing outbreaks of cross-border diseases, promoting existing and new GMS tourism destinations and conserving the environment. An ADB social development specialist, Lainie Thomas, proclaimed the youth caravan successful, as it has created a network among the younger generations in the GMS member countries and given opportunities for them to learn about positive impacts of GMS economic cooperation programmes, challenges of the future cooperation and integration. Travelling across the six GMS member countries' frontiers, the Youth Caravan also visited a dam project in China, as well as observed a transport network and trade facilities at the Lao-Vietnamese border and health care projects to reduce the number of new HIV/AIDS patients in Myanmar. The GMS Youth Message was set to be formally adopted at the Youth Forum, to be held under the theme of “Connected and Contributing to a Dynamic Community”, at the Shangri-la Hotel in Bangkok on Friday. The GMS member countries include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China's Yunnan Province. (TNA)