As water distribution is an important issue among the countries, the LMC’s meetings at different levels have identified a wide range of cooperation in the domains of politics, economics, and social needs in terms of the environment and water resource management, but critics say that the scheme has no clear regulation or protocol for water utilization (Ganjanakhundee, 2018). How to have better up- and downstream coordination, to take care of each other’s concerns and to strike the right balance between the economy and the environment, is a problem that has become a big challenge.
Moreover, there are unexpected risks such as natural disasters or accidents that may occur in dam operations. There have been many incidents that have occurred in the region. These incidents show that there is not enough cooperation within the region in terms of safety preparation, either to prevent these problems as much as possible or to come up with a quick response when unexpected incidents do occur. This is shown in the case of Laos. The Xepian Xe Nam Noy Dam in Attapeu Province, which was built on a tributary of the Mekong River and collapsed in July 2018, drowned the villages and towns downstream in more than five billion cubic meters of water (Olarn, 2018), causing severe damage to the people, homes, and constructions in the surrounding area. The damage was not just limited to Laos. Thousands of people along the Sekong River in Cambodia, which is downstream from the Xepian Xe Nam Noy River, were evacuated because of the high level of water in the river (Ellis-Petersen, 2018). This shows that many development projects in the Mekong River are not designed to be able to cope with extreme weather events and also lack proper solutions when incidents take place. Cooperation among the LMC countries in disaster prevention and setting new standards for safety presents a huge challenge.
Fifth, the influence of factors of major powers comes from outside the Mekong sub-region.
The US, Japan, India, and other major countries outside the region all regard the Mekong sub-region as a focal point for their policies in Southeast Asia, establishing the Mekong cooperation mechanism led by themselves. Faced with the rapid development of the new LMC, these countries have tried to adopt a hostile attitude to prevent the adverse impact of this cooperation mechanism on themselves, which in turn has prompted the Mekong sub-region countries, through the implementation of “power balance” strategy, to pursue their own interests, to improve their strategies, further causing serious problems to the LMC mechanism.
3.5.Promoting in Common the LMC for Development and Prosperity of the Lancang–Mekong Sub-region
Although faced with certain difficulties and challenges, the fruitful results obtained in the two short years since the formal establishment of the LMC demonstrate that the cooperation mechanism has a bright future. Each member state has obtained real benefit from this cooperation mechanism that has thus carried out its principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration.
The second LMC summit, held in Phenom Penh, Cambodia, in January 2018, opened a new page for the in-depth development of this cooperation. As a major advocate of the LMC, China proposed, at this meeting, concrete and operable suggestions on promoting the LMC.
The Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, made five proposals to secure a shared future for the LMC countries, believing they would become the biggest and earliest beneficiaries of China’s development. First, addressing the concerns of countries and people in the region, he called for stronger coordination among countries along the Lancang–Mekong River on water resource management, accommodating each other’s concerns and properly handling the relationship between economic development and environmental protection. He urged the mapping out of a Five-Year Action Plan for water resource cooperation to enhance emergency management of droughts and floods, to carry out joint research on water resources and climate change, and to improve the water quality monitoring system. The second was to enhance industrial capacity cooperation; to draw up a connectivity plan; to create hydropower plants, reservoirs, irrigation, and drinking water projects in the Mekong countries; and to conduct industrial capacity cooperation in transportation, communication, and other infrastructure projects. China encouraged companies to participate in the construction of hydropower stations, reservoirs, and irrigation-drinking-water projects in the Lancang–Mekong countries. The Chinese Premier also proposed to nail down plans for those countries’ connectivity and action plans for capacity cooperation and to push forward the construction of economic and trade cooperation zones as well as cross-border economic cooperation zones. The third was to deepen cooperation with the Mekong countries on agricultural science and technology, setting up a Lancang–Mekong Agriculture Cooperation Centre, and carry out downstream processing cooperation in the Mekong countries. China would cooperate with regional countries on the deep processing of agricultural products and the joint development of third markets. The fourth was to step up human resource cooperation. China proposed the setting up of a joint working group on education to encourage universities and vocational education institutions as well as the two sides to cooperate. The Premier called for upgrading human resource cooperation and declared that China would offer short-term training and in-service education for 2,000 people in Lancang–Mekong countries and 100 four-year scholarships for undergraduates in 2018. The fifth was to advance medical and healthcare cooperation. China was ready to put in place cross-border joint prevention and control mechanisms for combatting infectious diseases and to help partner countries improve their medical and healthcare systems by building hospitals and public health institutions. China was also willing to build a network for malaria elimination (Xinhua News Agency, 2018a).
In order to promote the implementation of the proposal, China would further increase its financial support for the LMC. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced at the summit in Phnom Penh that China would provide other Lancang–Mekong countries with 10 billion Yuan (US$1.54 billion) of concessional loans, US$5 billion of export credit, and $5 billion for capacity cooperation in more than 20 infrastructure and industry projects (Xinhua News Agency, 2018b).
Against a backdrop of the rise of trade protectionism in the world today, China says it will continue to open up the Mekong River countries. The Chinese Premier has said that the deficit that China holds with the Mekong countries on farm product trade will not prevent China from importing more (Xinhua News Agency, 2018b).
China also announced that the LMC mechanism will remain open. Chinese Premier Li also expressed the view that other parties and outside nations were welcome to participate in the region’s affairs and called for the nations to boost mutual political trust (Liu, 2016).
With the concerted efforts of the leaders of Member States, the six countries of the LMC adopted two major documents at the Phnom Penh summit, namely, the Five-Year Action Plan (2018–2022) and the Phnom Penh Declaration at the second LEC summit meeting.
In the Declaration, the leaders stressed the vision and importance of the LMC in contributing to the socio-economic development of the sub-regional countries and enhancing the well-being of their peoples, narrowing the development gap among countries, supporting ASEAN Community building as well as advancing South–South cooperation and enhancing the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Xinhua News Agency, 2018a).
The Five-Year Plan of Action (2018–2022) is formulated in accordance with documents, including the Sanya Declaration adopted at the first LMC Leaders’ Meeting, which aims at contributing to the economic and social development of sub-regional countries, enhancing the well-being of the people, narrowing the development gap within the region, and building a Community with a Shared Future of Peace and Prosperity among the Lancang–Mekong Countries. By synergizing China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 as well as the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 and visions of other Mekong