A pretty idyllic place on the Mekong Delta.

Naw Kham s gang also extorted protection money from cargo ships along the Mekong River.

Indeed, having its cake and eating it, China is a dialogue partner but not a member of the Mekong River Commission, underscoring its intent not to abide by the Mekong basin community s rules or take on any legal obligations.

The lower Mekong countries, for example, view China s strategy as an attempt to divide and conquer.

2000 5 Decade of Greater Mekong Subregion Development Cooperation, 2000 2009 (subprogrammes 1, 4, and 5)

56 1 Decade of Greater Mekong Subregion Development Cooperation, 2000 2009 (subprogrammes 1, 4 and 5)

Yunnan is home to three great Asian rivers the Mekong, the Salween (or Nu), and the Jinsha.

Cần Thơ () is the fourth largest city in Vietnam, and the largest city in the Mekong Delta.

ASEAN investment cooperation and the Greater Mekong Subregion arrangement have also encouraged Thai OFDI to member States.

At the regional level, the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative (COMMIT) had been signed in Yangon in October 2004.

He was looked upon as a Robin Hood , for the doling out of money he extorted from Mekong shipping.

The fisheries Aquatic biodiversity in the Mekong river system is the second highest in the world after the Amazon.

Among the slew of newly approved dam projects are five on the Salween, three on the Brahmaputra, and two on the Mekong.

The Mekong Tragedy prompted China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand to launch joint patrols along the river and coordinate attempts to capture Naw Kham.

It had a population of 1.2 million as of 2011, and is located on the south bank of the Hau River, a branch of the Mekong.

The Government was working with the Governments of the Mekong subregion, with which it had signed memorandums of understanding, and with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Despite its horrendous nature and its consequences on victims, human trafficking in the Greater Mekong subregion remains by and large a profitable and almost risk free business.

Seventeen regional technical assistance projects were also approved by the Asian Development Bank for US 7 million to promote long term development in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

In Vietnam, the Bassac is called the Hậu River (Sông Hậu or Hậu Giang) the main, eastern, branch of the Mekong is called the Tiền River or Tiền Giang.

This included regional and national consultations in the Great Lakes region of Africa and the Mekong Delta and technical assistance to community led initiatives for improving water and sanitation.

The current dam building plans threaten the Salween River s Grand Canyon a UNESCO World Heritage site and the pristine, environmentally sensitive areas through which the Brahmaputra and the Mekong flow.

One species of freshwater dolphin, the Irrawaddy dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris ), was once common in the whole of the Lower Mekong but is now very rare, with only 85 individuals remaining.

Despite these difficulties, the Mekong River is already an important link in the transit chain between Kunming and Bangkok with about 300,000 tonnes of goods shipped via this route each year.

The work carried out in this context includes several regional projects in the countries of the West African Monetary Union (UEMOA), the Mekong Delta region, South Asian LDCs and Central America.

There are approximately 45,000 Catholics, many of whom are ethnic Vietnamese, concentrated in major urban centers and surrounding areas along the Mekong River in the central and southern regions of the country.

The Religious Leadership Initiative continued to expand in the Mekong Delta countries, while the Islamic Leadership Initiative in Indonesia undertook a comprehensive baseline survey of knowledge, attitudes and practices among young people.

The Border Liaison Office, a cooperative mechanism along and across the borders of the Great Mekong River countries, established as part of a UNODC project, is a pioneer mechanism in the region.

The King of Thailand presided over the Royal Ploughing Ceremony in May, while the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Nam organized the Mekong Rice Conference in Ho Chi Minh City.

Worse, while promoting multilateralism on the world stage, China has given the cold shoulder to multilateral cooperation among river basin states. The lower Mekong countries, for example, view China s strategy as an attempt to divide and conquer.

The saltwater crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus ) once ranged from the Mekong Delta up the river into Tonle Sap and beyond but is now extinct in the river, along with being extinct in all of Vietnam and possibly even Cambodia.

The spread of infectious diseases, such as malaria, avian flu and HIV AIDS, although prevalence is low, continues to pose a serious threat to the nation because of its land links to countries in the Greater Mekong subregion.

ESCAP continued to support the draft agreement on facilitation of cross border transport of goods and people in the Greater Mekong Subregion and the draft intergovernmental agreement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on facilitation of international road transport.

China has already built six mega dams on the Mekong the lifeblood for continental Southeast Asia with its latest addition being the 254 meter high Nuozhadu Dam, whose gargantuan reservoir is designed to hold nearly 22 billion cubic meters of water.

The countries likely to bear the brunt of such massive diversion of waters are those located farthest downstream on rivers like the Brahmaputra and Mekong Bangladesh, whose very future is threatened by climate and environmental change, and Vietnam, a rice bowl of Asia.

Burmese drug lord Naw Kham and fellow gang members Hsang Kham from Thailand, Yi Lai, and Zha Xika from Laos were executed by China on March 1, 2013 after being found guilty of killing 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in 2011.