Promoting investment in and efficient management of transport, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure in the countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) was the focus of a recent training course for government officials from the Mekong region held in Vientiane, Lao PDR.

Provided by the Greater Mekong Subregion Tertiary Education Consortium Trust (GMSTEC), the course addressed the role of competition and regulation, public-private partnerships, stakeholder management, and governance issues in infrastructure.

The course was sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in partnership with Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, as part of ADB’s Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management - a demand-driven programme of training courses targeting the priority capacity building needs of GMS officials.

The course supports wider efforts by ADB and other donors to address the policy and management issues relating to the development of interconnecting infrastructure in the region. Professors from New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand and Lao PDR provided a mix of applied theory and regional cases to demonstrate the practical application of economic principles to the infrastructure challenges of the GMS.