India and Cambodia today signed two MoUs relating to Tourism and Mekong Ganga Cooperation Project. The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) was established in the year 2000 at Vientiane, Laos, at the First MGC Ministerial Meeting. It comprises six member countries, namely India, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The agreement emphasises upon four areas of cooperation, which are tourism, culture, education, and transportation linkage.<br/><br/>Speaking on the occassion, India's visiting Vice President Mr. Hamid Ansari conveyed the decision of Government of India to support several projects under Mekong Ganga Cooperation programme targeting the health sector, agriculture and women's empowerment. He hoped that these projects would benefit local communities, and contribute to improvement of public welfare. <br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports that earlier in his meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen today, Vice-President Md. Hamid Ansari said, cooperation between India and Cambodia is for mutual benefits and is guided by the requirements and priorities of the people of both the countries. Addressing the Council of Ministers of Cambodia at capital Phnom Penh, Mr. Ansari said India value greatly the support that Cambodia has extended in the ASEAN-India context. <br/><br/>The Vice-President said, India greatly appreciated Cambodia's support to New Delhi's efforts to reform the United Nations, making it more representative and secure for India the permanent membership of the Security Council. He said threats of extremism and terrorism require strong cooperation among like-minded partners. In this context, New Delhi and Phnom Penh have taken some steps to institutionalize cooperation and will continue to pursue more regular exchanges between its security personnel, he said.<br/><br/>Speaking about the need for strengthening economic ties he said despite extremely cordial political relations the diverse areas of cooperation, bilateral trade and investments between the two countries remains much below its potential. He said government of India has made clear its intention to partner Cambodia in its economic development. Mr. Ansari said India has recently set-up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to attract Indian investments into Cambodia and other CLMV countries, i.e. Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Vice-President Md. Hamid Ansari today said cooperation between India and Cambodia is for mutual benefits and is guided by the requirements and priorities of the people of both the countries. Addressing the Council of Ministers of Cambodia at capital Phnom Penh, Mr. Ansari said India value greatly the support that Cambodia has extended in the ASEAN-India context. <br/><br/>The Vice-President said, India greatly appreciated Cambodia's support to New Delhi's efforts to reform the United Nations, making it more representative and secure for India the permanent membership of the Security Council. He said threats of extremism and terrorism require strong cooperation among like-minded partners. In this context, New Delhi and Phnom Penh have taken some steps to institutionalize cooperation and will continue to pursue more regular exchanges between its security personnel, he said .<br/><br/>Speaking about the need for strengthening economic ties he said despite extremely cordial political relations the diverse areas of cooperation, bilateral trade and investments between the two countries remains much below its potential. He said government of India has made clear its intention to partner Cambodia in its economic development. Mr. Ansari said India has recently set-up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to attract Indian investments into Cambodia and other CLMV countries, i.e. Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Vietnam.<br/> <br/>In his meeting with with Prime Minister Hun Sen, today Mr. Ansari conveyed the decision of Government of India to support several projects under Mekong Ganga Cooperation programme targeting the health sector, agriculture and women's empowerment. He hoped that these projects would benefit local communities, and contribute to improvement of public welfare. Two MoUs relating to Tourism and Mekong Ganga Cooperation Project were signed earlier today. <br/><br/>The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) was established in 2000 at Vientiane, Laos, at the First MGC Ministerial Meeting. It comprises six member countries, namely India, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. They emphasised four areas of cooperation, which are tourism, culture, education, and transportation linkage.