The Second GMS Environment Ministers Meeting (EMM-2) was held in Don Chan Palace Hotel in Vientiane, Lao PDR on 29 January 2008. The overall theme of the meeting was “Sustainable Natural Resource Use for Economic Competitiveness.”

The meeting took stock of achievements of the GMS Core Environment Program (CEP) since its inception last April 2006 and discussed emerging environment, conservation and poverty reduction issues such as climate change, global warming and their effects on socio-economic growth and development.

The GMS Working Group on Environment 2nd Semi-Annual Meeting (WGE SAM-2) was held on 28 November 2007 via videoconference at ADB resident missions in Cambodia, PRC, Lao PDR, Thailand, Viet Nam and ADB Headquarters as the host. WGE representatives from Myanmar extended their apologized for not being able to attend the meeting. The participants list is attached as Appendix 1. It was recognized that it was the first time videoconferencing was tried for a WGE meeting and some basic meeting rules were established to enable a smooth discussion.