(KPL) Australia formally gave USD 3.5 million to the Mekong River Commission for her Mekong Climate Change and Adaptation Initiative (CCAI) in Vientiane on 2 November.
Richard Moore, Deputy-Director, Asia Division of Australia’s AusAID, and Jeremy Bird, Chief Executive Officer of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) were the two signatories to this agreement.
Just after the signing ceremony, Richard Moore said that Australia saw MRC’s CCAI as a welcome and new initiative and was pleased to give her support.
He added that the Australian Mekong Water Resources Programme was to promote regional cooperation, to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development through efficient use and management of water resources of the Mekong Basin.
According to a press release of the MRC, her CCAI aimed to develop and implement climate change strategies to cope with the impact on the entire basin of an increase in temperature, higher rainfall and more frequent flooding in some parts of the basin, more drought in other parts and rise in sea levels that impact the delta areas.
According to Dr Ponsook Chongprasith, Director of the MRC’s Environment Division, the money would be utilised for the design and early implementation of CCAI.
KPL Lao News Agency
