ASIAN MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE ORGANIZED THE MIDTERM REVIEW WORKSHOP OF GMS4 PROJECT

25/09/2022

On 10 August 2022, Asian Management and Development Institute (AMDI) organized the Midterm Review Workshop of the Fourth Greater Mekong Sub-region Corridor Towns Development Project (GMS4) funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to evaluate progress of the GMS4 Project.

The midterm workshop of the GMS4 project was organized at the Landmark Hotel on 10 August 2022 in Vientiane capital, Laos. The midterm workshop aims to evaluate the performance of the Project Implementation Consulting services and receive opinions among core partners on the progress of the GMS4 and to discuss about future action plans as well as the solutions to deal with issues of the GMS4.

HE. Madam. Vilaykham Phosarath – Vice Minister of Public Works and Transport delivered opening remark

The mid-term workshop was chaired by HE. Vilaykham Phosarath, Vice Minister of MPWT. The workshop welcomed participation of Mr. Viengnam DOAUNGPHACHANH - Director of Housing and Urban Planning Department, MPWT; PCU and Paksan and Thakhek Project Implementation Units (PIU) staff, representatives of other stakeholders i.e. Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance and the PIC Team.

Giving speech at the workshop, Mrs. Malychanh Sananikhom - PCU Director of the GMS4 Project gave a brief presentation on the progress of the Project, outputs as well as issues arisen during project implementation.

Dr. Nguyen Dac Phuong - Team Leader of the Project presented the detailed overall progress of the whole project, its achievements since its inception to date, the difficulties and challenges encountered and proposed solutions to speed up the project implementation in the near future.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has been extremely complicated for nearly 4 years, the Project has also achieved encouraging results. Specifically, in the past 4 years, 03 contracts of Paksan Municipal Solid Waste Subproject, Thakhek Municipal Solid Waste Subproject, and Paksan Stormwater Drainage Subproject were awarded and under construction. Other 04 Subprojects i.e. Thakhek Stormwater Drainage Subproject, Paksan Riverbank Protection for San River Subproject and Paksan and Thakhek DEWATS Units Subprojects were under bid advertisement and evaluation process. 04 remaining subprojects’ contracts are expectedly to be awarded and commenced in Quarter 3 and Quarter 4 of 2022. Thakhek Riverbank Protection for Mekong River and Thakhek Urban renewal, heritage conservation Subprojects are under pre-design and detailed engineering design process and expected for bid advertisement in Quarter 4 of 2022.

Participants at GMS4 project’s Midterm Review Workshop

In the Q&A session, the paricipants joined in discussion on the solutions to solve the isues that the project has been facing to accelerate project implementation in the remaining period of the project.

To close the workshop, HE.Vilaykham Phosarath - Vice Minister of MPWT of Laos highly appreciated the efforts of the PIC Team in the past time and wished the PIC Team would continue to accelerate the finalization of the design of Thakhek Riverbank Protection for Mekong River and Thakhek Urban renewal, heritage conservation Subprojects to ensure project progress.

Photos of the Workshop’s delegates