SIEM REAP: The economic ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) have endorsed their joint action plan 2023-2024, aiming to boost the post-Covid-19 economic recovery, a Cambodian official said on Saturday.

The endorsement was made during the 14th CLMV Economic Ministers' Meeting, which was held on Friday in Cambodia's northwestern Siem Reap province, on the sidelines of the 54th Asean Economic Ministers' Meeting.

"The ministers endorsed the CLMV Action Plan 2023-2024 which consists of six areas, namely trade and investment cooperation; digital economy; implementation of regional commitments; pandemic recovery plan; Implementation Plan of the Framework for CLMV Development; and human resource development," Cambodian Commerce Ministry's Undersecretary of State and spokesman Penn Sovicheat told Xinhua.

"The ministers directed their senior economic officials to monitor the activities to ensure timely and effective implementation," he added.

Sovicheat said the ministers also endorsed the Implementation Plan of the Framework for CLMV Development to assist CLMV in achieving its vision 2030, for CLMV to become a sustainable upper middle-income economy by 2030.

"The implementation plan is designed to run through 2030, and to be implemented in two phases, namely phase I (2023-2026) and phase II (2027-2030)," he said.

He said the implementation plan seeks synergy and complementarity with existing, national, sub-regional and regional external technical assistance and cooperation programs with development partners, the private sector and donor organizations.

"The ministers looked forward to continued cooperation in narrowing the development gap in the region," he said.

According to a joint media statement released after the meeting, the total merchandise trade of CLMV in 2021 reached 748.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 20 percent from 2020.

 - Xinhua