Speeches Shim
The illegal wildlife trade is a multi-billion dollar business, threatening the Lower Mekong region's unique ecosystems and robbing people of the benefits they provide. Wildlife trafficking undermines law enforcement, strengthens criminal syndicates, and raises the risk that diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans. The traffickers are well-organized; they prey on endangered species, move them across borders, and sell them around the world. Addressing these challenges means targeting each aspect of wildlife crime.
The United States Government (USG) launched the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Technical Assistance and Training Facility (TATF) in October 2008, underlining the USG’s commitment to assist APEC in achieving its objectives. APEC is the premier venue for the USG to engage the Asia-Pacific region on a wide range of economic and other issues.
Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong (SIM) provides partner countries with the U.S. Government’s best expertise in natural resource management to ensure the sustainable development of large infrastructure and land use projects. Through direct collaboration with national ministries, SIM furthers the Indo-Pacific Strategy’s mission of enhancing environmental security and building strong regional partnerships through its assistance to ministries on water security, biodiversity conservation, and disaster risk reduction.
According to World Health Organization calculations, some 1.5 million children die each year across the world from diarrheal disease and 94 percent of the cases are due to unclean water, poor sanitation, and inadequate hygiene. But the detrimental effects of these problems are by no means limited to children: they have severe and long-lasting effects on individual health and development, which taken as a whole put great stress on many developing nations. For example, illness from poor sanitation has been estimated to cost Cambodia and Vietnam over $1 billion in lost Gross Domestic Product every year due to missed workdays.
The Mekong River plays a central role in the lives of millions of people in South East Asia who depend on it for their food, water, income, and transportation. Yet it is precisely because of its importance that the river faces many challenges as the countries of the Lower Mekong – Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam -- look to the future.
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