Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will discuss development issues ranging from tourism promotion to industrial development as the 6th leaders' summit of the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (Acmecs) opens today in Myanmar.
Gen Prayut will play a key role in the meeting, running from today until tomorrow, to boost cooperation in helping neighbouring countries with infrastructure development, scholarships and training.
The meeting will cover trade and investment, agriculture, industry and energy, transport links, tourism, human resources, public health and the environment, said deputy government spokesman Weerachon Sukhontapatipak.
Gen Prayut plans to push for faster results from cooperation, since some of these issues have been discussed before without progress, Maj Gen Weerachon said.
"The prime minister wants neighbouring countries' strength to grow alongside Thailand's strength," he said. It is Gen Prayut's first visit to the Amecs forum.
Created during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, Acmecs was aimed at tightening up collaboration between Thailand and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Thailand has played the role of core coordinator for public health cooperation and trade and investment, in which the government says progress has been made.
According to a government source, border trade was enhanced through several one-stop service centres at the main border checkpoints and through agreements setting up twin cities along the borders.
"Around 20 twin border cities have signed MoU documents to promote local trade and the next one will be the Mae-Sot and Myawaddy agreement, expected this August," the source said.
Tourism is another big issue and the members agreed to push for a tourism corridor in the framework.
Promoting a single entry visa, which would permit travel into neighbouring countries, is a key plan.
Although Thailand and Cambodia have previously signed an agreement on a single visa, the move has made no progress due to technical problems, the source said, adding the single visa will be discussed further with the aim of expanding it to cover all 10 Asean members.
The development of special economic zones which connect neighbouring economies, as well as the tourism scheme "Five countries, one destination" in which member countries jointly arrange tours, are also on the agenda.
Thailand will host the 7th Acmecs summit before 2017, the ministry said.