Welcome

Eora nation representative
Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor John Hearn

Opening address

The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs

Keynote address: Regional Integration through the GMS

Rajat Nag,  Managing Director General, Asian Development Bank

Mekong Update – regional integration and integrated water resource management

Situational overview of integration in the Mekong

• Integrated water resource management through MRC
• Australian Development Assistance in the Mekong
• Riparian country perspectives on integration and development in the Mekong

Nguyen Hong Toan, Vietnam National Mekong Committee and Secretary MRC Joint Committee
Murray Proctor, Deputy Director General Asia, AusAID
Mekong ambassador (to be confirmed)

Commentary

Peter Warr, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Director, Poverty Research Centre, Division of Economics, Australian National University

Situational overview of civil society linkages in the Mekong

• Civil society responses to regional economic integration
• Civil society and river basin development and management
• Civil society and Australia’s role in the Mekong

Witoon Permpongsacharoen, Director, Foundation for Ecological Recovery, Thailand
Andrew Walker, Fellow, Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, Australian National University      
Andrew Hewett, Executive Director, Oxfam Australia

Summary: areas of critical concern

Philip Hirsch, Director, Australian Mekong Resource Centre, University of Sydney

Key issues in Mekong Development

Regional integration and its implications for poorer countries and communities

Lu Xing, Mekong Studies Centre, Yunnan University
Carl Middleton,  International Rivers Network

Transboundary river basin governance, poverty and development

Kurt Mørck Jensen, Danish International Development Agency
Bach Tan Sinh, Vietnam National Institute of Science and Technology Policy and Strategy

Case studies and arising issues

• East-West Economic Corridor
• Regional Linkages: Plantation investment and land alienation in the Nam Theun Basin
• Managing for development, livelihood and environment: the case of fisheries
• Social Impacts of Highway One

Sirivanh Khonthapane, Nation Economic Research Institute, Laos
Glenn Hunt, Macquarie University
Kunthea Keat, Fisheries Action Coalition Team
Kol Leakhana, Conservation and Development Cambodia

Keynote address: IWRM, its interpretations and the Mekong

Robyn Johnston, Murray Darling Basin Commission and Bruce Hooper, DHI Water and Environment

Thematic Breakout Sessions (see below for details)

The Australian White Paper, the Mekong Regional Strategy and their implications for the Mekong

Michael Wilson, ADG Asia Bilateral, AusAID
Jonathan Cornford, Oxfam Australia
Patrick Kilby, Australian National University
Peter Warr, Australian National University

Water Governance and the Mekong

Brian Haisman, former MRC-MDBC liaison
Chem Phalla, Cambodia Development Resource Institute
Sukhontha Aekaraj, Thai Department of Water Resources
Le Thu Trang, Vietnam Center for Water Resources Conservation and Development

Infrastructure, poverty and  sustainability

Marjorie Sullivan, Environment Consultant, ANU Visiting Fellow
Jessica Rosien, Oxfam Australia
Mean Meach, 3SProtection Network, Cambodia
Ronald Butiong, Asian Development Bank
Allan Coultard, AusAID

China, the GMS and Lancang-Mekong

Steven Fitzgerald, University of Sydney
Cao Daming, Yunnan Research & Coordination Office for Lancang-Mekong Subregional Cooperation
Milton Osborne, Lowy Institute
Yu Xiaogang, Green Watershed, China

The resource economy, integration and the environment

Warwick Browne, Oxfam America
Monemany Nhoybouakong, Science Technology and Environment Agency, Laos
Tira Foran, Unit for Social and Economic Research, Chiang Mai University
Santita Ganjanapan, Chiang Mai University

Making regional integration work for the poor

Sombat Somphone, Participatory Development Training Centre, Laos
Chris Lyttleton, Macquarie University
Holly High, Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney
Buapun Promphakping, Khon Kaen University

Looking back to look forward: lessons and opportunities

Panel discussion and open debate

• What have we learned from 15 years of regional integration and 12 years of integrated river basin management
• What are the key directions and how can development agencies’ programs best serve the needs of the poor
• What partnerships need to be fostered to promote sustainability and equitable development
• What research opportunities and imperatives should inform development assistance

• To be announced

Closing speech

Michael Wilson, Assistant Director General, Asia Bilateral Branch, AusAID

The Australian White Paper, the Mekong Regional Strategy and their implications for the Mekong

In 2006, the Australian Government issued a White Paper on Australia’s development assistance program.  In 2007, AusAID formulated a Mekong Regional Strategy.  This session will highlight key points of the White Paper and its implications for the Mekong, and the Mekong Regional Strategy.  Discussion will consider the directions of both in the context of regional economic integration, integrated water resources management and their implications for poverty alleviation and development in the region.

Water Governance and the Mekong

Conservation, use and development of water resources at transboundary, national and local levels present some of the great challenges for the Mekong River Basin.  Water governance involves multiple stakeholders and a range of visions on the most appropriate ways to manage water efficiently, equitably and sustainably.  This session will address water governance in the Mekong with a particular focus on institutional challenges and on implications for the poor.

Infrastructure, poverty and  sustainability

Regional integration in the Greater Mekong Subregion is being facilitated through infrastructure investments, including roads, water resource infrastructure and an integrated energy grid.  Inadequate infrastructure is a major bottleneck to development in the region but the social and environmental implications of infrastructure-led growth are much debated.  This session will address the issues and will seek to clarify points of consensus as well as the basis for differences in positions on the role of infrastructure in sustainable and equitable development in the Mekong.

China, the GMS and Lancang-Mekong

China’s role in the Greater Mekong Subregion has increased markedly, in part through its active participation in the GMS framework and in part through China’s economic relations with other Mekong countries.  Yet despite the fact that half the length of the Lancang-Mekong River flows through its territory, China remains outside the Mekong River Commission, meeting annually with the MRC as a dialogue partner..  This panel considers China’s rapidly growing role in the Mekong and what it means for the region’s development, including sustainable and equitable development within the Lancang / Upper Mekong Basin

The resource economy, integration and the environment

What are the environmental implications of large scale natural resource development facilitated by regional integration?  Mining, energy, forestry and other resource based industries have expanded with the region’s economic growth, with concomitant impacts on the environment.  Rapidly increasing demand for energy and impacts of climate change in the region give added urgency to a sub-regional approach to resource development.  This session considers the nature and scale of what may be termed a “regional resource economy” and the challenges that such a transboundary dimension to resource development presents to environmental management.  It also considers what alternative approaches to wise use of the region’s still rich natural resource base may lead to more sustainable and equitable outcomes.

Making regional integration work for the poor

Regional economic integration promises much in the way of accelerated economic growth.  However, the implications for poorer countries – notably Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar – are mixed.  Will such countries be pulled along by growth in a way that achieves broad-based benefits, or are they destined to remain resource suppliers to the more dynamic economies of China, Thailand and Vietnam?  Similarly, are lagging provinces, remote communities and poorer households in the region similarly at risk of getting left behind or being adversely affected by regional economic integration, or will they share in its benefits?  Are there, in fact, clear answers to such questions or are outcomes contingent on the type of regional integration that occurs?  This panel addresses these difficult but vital questions through case studies from poorer parts of the Mekong Region.