Mekong Ganga Cooperation

Mekong Ganga Cooperation

Mekong Ganga Cooperation or (MGC) is a group of six nations, namely: India, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. This group was established in November 2000 at Vientiane. This group emphasizes 4 areas of cooperation, namely : Tourism, Culture, Education and Transportation.

Mekong and Ganga are the two big rivers of this region.

There is annual meeting of MGC  of Senior officials back to back with Asian Ministerial Meeting. 

There are Five Working Group of MGC with different countries having leadership:

AREA OF WORKING                                                                      LEADER

Working group on Tourism                                                                  Thailand

Working group on Education                                                                India

Working group on Culture                                                                    Cambodia

Working group on Communication & Transportation                         Laos

Working group on Plan of Action                                                         Vietnam

Although 6 annual meeting has been held till now, but the most important meeting was the 2nd  MGC Ministerial Meeting held in Hanoi in July 2001 . In this meeting the Hanoi Program of Action (HPA) was adopted, affirming groups commitment to cooperate in four areas of cooperation (tourism, culture, education and transportation). The HPA has 6 year's time frame from 2001-2007 and its progress will be reviewed every two years.

Chair of MGC changes annually, India had the chair at 5th MGC Ministerial Meeting in 2007 at Manila.

India hosted the 6th MGC Ministerial Meeting at Delhi in September 2012