On 13-14 June 2019, at Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, CICP organized a regional workshop on Future Prospect of the Mekong River. This event served as a scholarly forum to shed light on diverse perspectives concerning various pertinent matters confronting the Mekong Subregion with the objective of determining policy recommendations for relevant authorities.
Scholars and experts from Cambodia, the region and beyond provided their insights as to the prospects of the Mekong through various distinctive lens ranging from political, security, economic, social, and environmental aspects. There was a general consensus that while viewing development in the Mekong as crucial, it is necessary to reconsider some existing policies and frameworks impacting both the river and its basin. There are strong indications status quo practices and place the long-term sustainability of the Mekong in considerable jeopardy.
Although there has been increasing momentum among existing regional mechanisms to work with one another towards the development soundness and sustainability of the Mekong sub- region, concrete actions in this regard remain few and far between. The momentum for collaboration has been complicated by increasingly tensions and visible competition among the great powers with interests in the region. During the regional workshop, there were consistent calls for greater recognition of the growing research consensus as to the challenges confronting the future of the Mekong. Moreover, environmental and grassroots concerns need to be given greater weight and more serious consideration in policy-making circles.
On the occasion, CICP also officially launched its Journal of Greater Mekong Studies (JGMS). JGMS aims to serve as a platform of collecting scholarly views from local and regional experts with regards to matters concerning the Mekong region and provide policy suggestions to relevant authorities.
The outcome report of this conference is available in this link: https://cicp.org.kh/publications/the-future-prospects-of-the-mekong-river/
