GMS Plan of Action In line with the overall thrust to infuse greater results-focus in GMS forums, the13th GMS Ministerial Conference (Vientiane, Lao PDR; 14-16 December 2004) introduced an innovation that has set a new standard for ministerial meetings. The Conference was the first GMS ministerial level conference to produce a Plan of Action (POA) to guide the GMS Program’s activities in the medium term.

The Conference also generated a clear commitment by the GMS countries to implement this POA in a consistent and timely manner. The POA identified important projects and activities that are focused, prioritized, coordinated, and with clear timelines. The POA serves as a concise road map for cooperative action in the medium-term in the nine priority sectors of GMS cooperation.

GMS Plan of Action The POA was reviewed and endorsed by the second GMS Leaders Summit (Kunming, PRC, July 2005). Indeed, several of the actions and initiatives contained in the POA comprised deliverables for the Second Summit and have been adopted and endorsed by the Summit.

The progress made under this results-oriented POA is reviewed regularly by other GMS forums at the operations level, including the GMS sector working groups and the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), using a monitoring format that includes the status of each project or initiative and the corresponding further required actions, if any. This is presented herein as the “Status Report on the Plan of Action of the 13th Ministerial Conference as Endorsed by the Second GMS Summit of Leaders.”