JAPAN TO HOST SUMMIT WITH MEKONG NATIONS

       Japan will hold the first summit with five countries of the Mekong region next month to build up connectivity and bridge development gaps among them, a Japanese official said yesterday.
       Leaders from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan will meet in Tokyo on November 6-7 to discuss development schemes in the Mekong basin.
       Japan is engaged with the Mekong countriems under the framework of Asean-Japan to help bridge development gaps between the newer members of the regional grouping - Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
       Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama extended the invitations for the Tokyo meeting to his counterparts from the Mekong region when he met them in Cha-am/Hua Hin.
       He also discussed the matter during a meeting with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who said he was looking forward to the meeting in Tokyo, according to the Japanese government spokesman Kazuo Kodama.
       Hatoyama told Abhisit that both Japan and Thailand are donor countries in the Mekong region and both should play a bigger role in helping development in the region, he said.
       "The major purpose of having this summit is to discuss how the Mekong countries and Japan can best work together to reduce or eliminate the existing disparity between old and new members of Asean," Kodama said. Japan is aware of many existing development schemes in the Mekong basin supoorted by China and the Asian Development Bank under the framework of the Greater Mekong Sub-region as well as Asean's connectivity schemes, he said.
       "Japan is willing to help to stream line the border institution to be more efficient," he added. The issue of connectivity was also at the forefront of topics discussed in the Asean Summit and with the partners from East Asia.
       Connectivity topped the agenda at the Asean-China summit yesterday as Beijing is seen playing a significant role in infrastructure development in the region.
       They also followed up the progress of China's initiatives to promote infrastructure development in Asean, including the US$10-billion (Bt334 billion) China-Asean Fund on Investment Cooperation and $15-billion commercial credit, according to a summit document.
       Thailand expressed its readiness to develop an Asean highway centre and reaffirmed its hope that Asean would develop dual rail tracks across the region, the document said.