On The Lancang - Mekong Sub-regional Economic Cooperation Framework,

Lancang - Mekong River is the only international river that spans six countries in Asia, it is known as "Oriental Danube". Since 1992, Asian Development Bank's Greater Mekong Sub-regional economic cooperation has experienced a 16-year history of cooperation. In the 16 years, Lancang -Mekong Sub-regional economic cooperation achieved fruitful results; also, it is facing a lot of problems. These problems are economic, the political, but also the system, in particular the rule of law which is seriously hindering in-depth development of sub-regional economic cooperation. This paper discussed the construction of the framework of sub-regional economic cooperation from the macro-level, especially for the focus on the construction of the legal framework. It has four parts:The first part is summarization of the Sub-region economic cooperation of Lancang - Mekong River.First of all, expounded the concept of the sub-regional economic cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River. The sub-regional economic cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River means that in the Lancang -Mekong River Basin China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam launched various forms of economic activities which around the goods and capital, technology, personnel, resources, and other production elements' rational flow and optimized allocation. Secondly, the development process of the sub-regional economic cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River is briefly described. Next, the four cooperation mechanisms of the sub-regional economic cooperation the Lancang - Mekong River of are introduced: First, " Economic Cooperation in Greater Mekong Sub-regional" mechanism which is led by the Asian Development Bank and is participated by China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The cooperation mechanism's main objective is improving the sub-region's infrastructure and expanding sub-region's trade and investment. The second is "the Mekong River Basin Sustainable development cooperation" mechanism which is participated by Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China, Myanmar country are for the dialogue country. Its purpose is developing and appropriated managing Lancang - Mekong River's water and related resources in accordance with international law. Third, it is "ASEAN - the Mekong River Basin Development Cooperation" mechanism which is led by ASEAN and is participated by the 10 Southeast Asian countries and China. The cooperation mechanism aimed at enhancing the economic development of the Mekong River Basin, the establishment of economic partnership between ASEAN and the Mekong River Basin strengthen economic links between countries, so as to speed up the development of the Southeast Asian region. The fourth is "Golden Quadripartite Economic Cooperation" mechanism which is led by Chinese, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand governments, and which develops economic cooperation in adjacent areas of the four countries .The cooperation mechanism is the purpose of the building to the Indochina Peninsula in southwest China's water, land crossings and "economic corridors" to achieve two major market docking, the promotion of small regional economic development.The second part focuses on the Status of the Sub-regional Economic Cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River.This Part introduces eight areas of the sub-regional economic cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River's achievements .They are the area of the traffic and energy, the area of agriculture, the area of human resources, tourism fields, the field of environment, drug control, trade and investment fields, the field of health . The sub-regional economic cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River has been experienced more than 10 years of development, it has been a great success, but it is also facing a lot of problems. For example, the countries of Lancang - Mekong River have different social systems, ideologies, and they have low market economic level; sub-regional's trade system is not perfect, the trade and investment facilitation and information are in the low level ; four cooperation mechanisms of the sub-regional have loose coordination , the consultation mechanism is imperfect, four cooperation mechanisms of the sub-region is lack of necessary binding; there are many adversely affected by neighboring countries and the international environment; the countries of the sub-region in building a dynamic business environment has made notable progress, but in the legal and regulatory framework still exists insufficient; sub-regional cooperation is also lack of appropriate dispute settlement mechanism, etc.PartⅢexpounded the significance of the Sub-regional economic cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River as well as the construction of Lancang - Mekong Sub-region economic cooperation framework for the needThe sub-regional cooperation of the Lancang - Mekong River is in keeping with the current economic globalization, regional economic groupings ,and the trend of development found of a new growth point for the socio-economic development of the countries in the region; it is conducive to the integration of the countries of the region forces, the mobilization of all forces within and outside the region, promote the Lancang - Mekong Basin region 's effective development and further promote regional socio-economic development of countries; it is conducive to promoting the mutual understanding and friendship of the six countries of the region between, so as to maintain regional peace and stability to create a peaceful and stable regional environment ; it is conducive to safeguarding and improving our country's economic security environment ;it is conducive to promoting China's economic development , social stability and border consolidation of frontier regions; it is conducive to promoting the construction of China - the ASEAN Free Trade Zone and laying a solid foundation of the establishment of East Asia Free Trade Zone as well as at a greater scope and at a higher level of the establishment of the East Asian Community.The Sub-regional Economic Cooperation of Lancang - Mekong River have great significant, but the current multiple parallel operation of the situation of the sub-regional cooperation mechanisms has hampered cooperation continued to deepen. Build a mechanism to coordinate the cooperation to ensure that the economic cooperation between the normal frameworks of cooperation is very necessary. The first is the need for coordinated cooperation mechanism. The four cooperation mechanisms of sub-region overlapped in the scope, level and the content and their cooperation mechanism is loose, the mechanism of cooperation is lack of effective coordination and the necessary legal binding, it need a higher level on the establishment of a coordinating body to solve these problems, and the establishment of effective coordination body should be established in the overall framework of cooperation .This was followed by the need of sub-regional economic cooperation to further development. At present, the level of sub-regional cooperation is relatively low, sub-regional cooperation is the need for a framework for cooperation, including cooperation guiding ideology, the principle of cooperation, cooperation objectives, cooperation mechanism, the legal framework of cooperation, the settlement of disputes and so on, so that the further development of rule-based cooperation, quickly and effectively. The third is the need to resolve the dispute. Any entity law requires a corresponding procedural law to ensure their effective implementation, either the World Trade Organization to establish a set of international trade rules, or China - the ASEAN Free Trade Area's series of trade agreements need effective legal mechanisms to protect the implementation of these rules and the agreement. An effective dispute settlement mechanism must be in the sub-region has the absolute authority, could restrain all regional cooperation in the region's affairs within the scope of the mechanism, and the establishment of such a mechanism, we must have a macroscopic view, and must be set up in the overall cooperation under the framework. The establishment of a regional economic cooperation framework may resolve the problem of dispute settlement mechanism.PartⅣelaborate on the construction of the framework of the Sub-region economic cooperation of Lancang - Mekong River, but because of space constraints, this paper could not explain every part of the framework. The paper will focus on the legal framework.Construction of the first step of the legal framework is a sound legal system. The establishment of the legal system mainly contains the part of international, regional, bilateral, national and local for the sub-regional economic cooperation to institutionalize arrangements. The second step is in implementing the law of the sub-regional economic cooperation of Lancang -Mekong River. The legal system is divided into international and domestic law, each part have different implementation methods. Next, I talked about the thinking on the dispute settlement of the sub-regional economic cooperation of Lancang - Mekong River.