On 22 June 2018, the Mongolian Ministry of Finance hosted the 18th Consultative Commission (CC) Meeting of the Greater Tumen Initiative in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. This year’s event was held back-to-back with a High-level Forum on Priority Development Programs: Financial Cooperation Initiatives organised a day earlier by the Development Bank of Mongolia (DBM).
As the highest decision-making body of GTI, the CC Meeting brought together again representatives of the respective GTI line ministry of each member country as well as the GTI national coordinators. Representatives discussed the progress of GTI’s six priority sectors as well as strategic developments in the region. They highly welcomed the Panmunjeom Declaration and invited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to join GTI again for a peaceful and prosperous development of Northeast Asia. GTI member states were encouraged to promote policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds. A stronger inclusion of the private sector in GTI cooperation fields as a cross-cutting topic was discussed throughout the meeting.
GIZ SCSI attended the event to deliver words in a session on strategic partnership development, alongside other strategic partners of GTI such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or the Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA), highlighting the partnership and collaboration with GIZ in trade facilitation and local cooperation as well as support to the organisational development of GTI and further priority sectors.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and GTI was signed to support the GTI Tourism Board efforts to increase multi-destination tourism in the Greater Tumen Region (GTR).
During the closing act, the People’s Republic of China – where the 19th CC Meeting will take place in 2019 – took over the GTI CC Chairmanship.