His Excellency Hell Tony, Deputy Director-General of the Tonle Sap Authority, Meets to Discuss and Sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center
On the afternoon of Saturday, March 15, 2025, His Excellency Hell Tony, Deputy Director-General of the Tonle Sap Authority, representing His Excellency Thor Chetha, Senior Minister and Chairman of the Tonle Sap Authority, along with His Excellency Sar Kimsan, Secretary-General of the Tonle Sap Authority, led a technical team from the Tonle Sap Authority to meet and discuss with a delegation from the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center (LMC), led by His Excellency Dr. Zhou Zhiwei, Secretary-General of the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center (LMC).
Please be informed that this meeting had two main objectives: (1) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Tonle Sap Authority and the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center, and (2) to prepare joint projects for implementation in the Tonle Sap Basin with funding from the People's Republic of China.
During the meeting, His Excellency Hell Tony, Deputy Director-General, briefed the delegation on the roles, responsibilities, core missions, and achievements of the Tonle Sap Authority, while also addressing current challenges and measures to mitigate impacts on the Tonle Sap Lake, both now and in the future. He also highlighted the relationship between the Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong River. On this occasion, the delegation from the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center introduced the purpose of their participation, shared the history of their desire to establish cooperation with the Tonle Sap Authority, and compared the Tonle Sap Lake with several lakes in China, such as Lake Taihu and Lake Poyang.
In addition, His Excellency the Deputy Director-General expressed strong commitment to strengthening long-term partnership and cooperation between the Tonle Sap Authority and the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center, especially since the leadership and technical officials of the Tonle Sap Authority were permitted to attend the International Taihu Conference on Gushi Lake Water Management in Wuxi City, People's Republic of China, from November 13 to 15, 2024.
Please also be informed that during this meeting, the two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Tonle Sap Authority, represented by His Excellency Sar Kimsan, Secretary-General, and the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center, represented by His Excellency Zhou Zhiwei, Secretary-General. The MoU aims to strengthen cooperation in sharing data, information, monitoring, joint assessments, research, knowledge management, study tours, and capacity building related to water resource development and management. This is to promote socio-economic development in the Tonle Sap Lake area and to prepare project proposals for funding from the government of the People's Republic of China for joint implementation in the Tonle Sap Basin.
