Premier Wen Jiabao, at the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) forum on business participation in Kunming on Monday, said the government attaches importance to the role of the private sector in regional cooperation and hopes it will make a greater contribution to common progress.
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Wen said GMS cooperation has deepened and become fruitful in recent years, improving the trade and investment environment, so business communities in the region have more opportunities for economic activities.
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Strengthening relations between government and business is important in achieving common prosperity in the subregion, he said.
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Wen said the government has increased transparency and openness of laws and policies, facilitated the entry and exit of personnel and commodities, and provided domestic enterprises with good services to help them in international economic cooperation.
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Infrastructure construction should remain the focus of GMS cooperation though great progress has been made in this respect, Wen said.
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On telecommunications, Wen proposed enhancing development in rural areas, promoting human resources development and strengthening exchange between GMS nations.
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The forum is a part of the ongoing second GMS Economic Cooperation summit, and the participants include the prime ministers of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
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The leaders of the other five GMS members also encouraged businesses to participate in regional cooperation, proposing to strengthen partnerships between public and private sectors and financial organs like the ADB to create a fairer and more facilitative environment.
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More than 300 people from GMS businesses participated in the event.

The GMS cooperation mechanism, initiated in 1992 by the ADB, involves Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. It aims to promote development around the Mekong River (known as the Lancang River in China) and international cooperation in the region.?

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2005)