26 May

Union Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation U Ohn Win arrived back in Myanmar yesterday afternoon after attending the Fourteenth Meeting of the Technical Working Group on Transboundary Haze Pollution in the Mekong Sub-Region (14th TWG Mekong) and the Eight Meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution in the Mekong Sub-Region (8th MSC Mekong) in Siem Reap, Cambodia from 23 to 24 May 2019.

The meetings were attended by ministers, deputy ministers, high-ranking officials from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, the ASEAN Secretary-General’s office, ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Global Environment Center (GEC), Europe Union (EU) and German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ).

The meeting was opened with welcoming speeches by the Governor of Siem Reap Province and Cambodia’s Minister for Environment, and ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Centre (ASMC) explained about present conditions of the weather and haze pollution.

Chairman of the Technical Working Group on Transboundary Haze Pollution in the Mekong Sub-Region from Cambodia discussed matters concerning development of the implementation of international-level work schemes to control the haze and the Chiang Rai 2017 plan of action, wildfire and haze control management and cooperation in the countries of Mekong Sub-Region and other international cooperation partnership countries.

Then officials from Thailand discussed work progress and developments of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee Transboundary Haze Pollution in the Mekong Sub-Region.

The officials from the ASEAN Secretary-General’s office discussed the implementation Roadmap of the Transboundary Haze Pollution control and ASEAN cooperation scheme following the statement and report of the meeting were ratified.

In their closing remarks at the meeting, ministers from Mekong Sub-Region pledged to tackle the challenges in unison while conducting the environmental issues through sustainable cooperation.

In the afternoon, the Union Minister held talks with the delegation from Thailand and discussed matters relating to bilateral cooperation to enhance the control of wildlife and haze problems and to sign MoU for environmental conservation.—MNA (Translated by Win Ko Ko Aung)