I made an announcement and press release. After that we supported the Mekong River Commission. We supported. You need to know the Mekong Corporation has a wide area of corporation. Water management or Water Resources is only one of the five areas they cover. So thats one thing. So to answer that and we would like very much, because we represent we are Regional Organization of only four countries which clues vietnam, thailand, laos and cambodia. We had china and burma and myanmar as partners. In that sense we would say that we would like to participate in the work of lower Mekong Corporation. Actually we volunteer to take care of all the water issues of the corporation. We also would like to this may be too close to take care of what the issues of the corporation if possible, however still located in loose or in cambodia, not to move to china. And we express that to china, we would like to do that. Now, does it supersede Mekong River Commission . There is concern of Many Development partners. But i dont see that it would supersede, because it has larger areas of interest, of the activities. The second thing is this. Mekong River Commission is the only organization which is treaty based. The Mekong Corporation is not treaty based. By the way, we have been in the business for the last 21 years. If you compare the 1995 mekong agreement with socalled 1997 United Nations water courses convention, then i would say that we have longer history, longer, how do we say, time, for operation of the agreement or implementation of agreement in the region. The u. N. Convention is entered into only one year ago, at the end of 2014. And even if we take that in the mekong region, we have only vietnam ratified the convention. Other countries did not ratify. Even china did not vote, how to say, against it in 1997. So it says that the Mekong River Commission is very relevant, and by the way, if you look back at, how to say, 1995, when the agreement was signed, it was a most appropriate agreement at the time and it entered into right away. Moreover, if you look at the history of the Mekong River Commissions for the last 21 years, it is a legendary one. Take the u. N. Convention. Its beautiful, its wonderful. However, vietnam is the only country to ratify it but other countries do not ratify it, it is not effective at all. In that way i think i answered the question that it is relevant, and the Mekong Corporation will not supersede the Mekong River Commission. If i can ask a followup, then we can come back to your question. Where did the microphone go . Lets work that way because the microphone is closest to you, then well get it this way. Im former a consultant for the Mekong River Commission. I think this is more of a reflection and perhaps an unrelated question. If you dont mind, can you show your last slide . Uhoh. There you go. Im also an engineer, by the way. I dont think you were saying there is a conflict here. In fact i think what youre saying is that a diplomat in india has to Work Together to achieve the objectives that are prescribed by the minister. What i would like to say is what mrc is. Theyre both engineers and diplomats. The overlapping perspective of diploma diplomacy, the first is a technical objective. If you look at the logo of mrc, there is a lot of debates on the real definition of that. And so thats the first objective of mrc, to be able to come up with a Sustainable Development and management of the river basin. Its primarily technical. Obviously theres the political management aspects of that. But the second objective of diplomacy that is not really being discussed is that mrc as a hydrodiplom hydrodiplomat, just to keep the peace, im not saying that mrc, these will not be there. I think its important to know that mrc is kind of successful in that as well. I dont have a question, i suppose. I think richard mentioned that both rivers, the Mississippi River and the other river are both muddy rivers. Yes, i recognize that. But i think in the mekong river and the mekong river, sediment is more treated as one of the life lines in that region, while correct me if im wrong, the Mississippi River, i think sediment is more like looked at more negatively. Thank you. Were Getting Better at that, the delta issues. Thank you. Did you want to pass the microphone this way . Does anybody have a particular response . No . Can i Say Something . The other slides that i didnt show were related to this one. And the point that i wanted to make with that is that Water Management is more like threedimensional chess. So you have the flat plane where the engineers and the ministers of Water Resources, irrigation, are working on their problem. There are another set of planes above that. And the solution to the mekong river problems lie not in the Water Resources sector, but they lie in the diplomatic triangle, because they can get at other issues of benefit sharing, trade agreements, Water Quality agreements, transboundary. All of these things can be used to leverage the things that you want to achieve in Water Resources management. So thats beyond our realm, right . Thats beyond the engineers realm. Its in the diplomats realm. Im not sure that theyre functioning at the multidimensional level as they should. I think thats exactly right. And it is challenging, because were all stove piped. And these are very intersectorial types of challenges, and how can you reach decisions across those different sectors and different aspects of trade and everything else. Very, very challenging. Its a big challenge, i think, that well face. We talked a little bit about this earlier. How do you bring Technical Information to the relevant policymakers or how do you empower the policy makers who are part of your conversations to be able to make the kinds of decisions they will have to make . Thats going to be a real challenge. Hi, im jane somers, the Energy Adviser at the usaid office. My comment is on eugenes presentation. Thanks for the graphics, as an engineer i like the visuals. I guess the one comment i would make is, i dont agree with you that its an either or of an Economic Development or socalled green economy. I think that if we dont develop it in an environmentally sustainable way, our Economic Growth, then its much more difficult and expensive to later try to introduce green or environmentally friendly, even emergency efficiency measures into these projects after theyre all constructed and built. So i would just say i think they should be done together, and in fact you can have more Economic Growth if you did it in a sustainable way. My question for you, dr. Phan, for mrc, what do you think are your greatest needs that agencies like usaid or other donors could assist you to strengthen your authority or your capacity organization to be as effective as possible, and ways we can assist you in achieving your goals . I would say i do not know very much also about usaid. So i dont know what i can ask you, because i dont know a lot. So thats one thing. However, all what i know, technically you can help us a lot. As also u. S. Army corps of engineers, in the technical areas. Even though actually i approach amfred and banko two times. We would like very much to complete socalled Council Study which would assess all the impacts of the hydropowers mainstream and also add impacts in order to have it as inputs for the decisionmaking in full countries. So all that, the Technical Expertise from you, i think thats very important. And also all the experience that you have done in other regions would be also helpful. I think that we also have we also look at the geospatial, that you have cambodia office. We think thats great. However, it costs a lot of money, by the way. So i think this also, we might have also a the problem to implement, how to say, High Technology in the region. But thats not the only thing. I think also the soft skills or soft, how to say, areas, i learn from u. S. , usaid that you have center of conflict resolution. You talk about stakeholder engagement. Those things are very, very helpful for us. One of the things that i learned for the last week, during this trip that we witness, we listen to public hearings in the mississippi River Commission, which amazingly they have done that for the last 150 years, since 1878. The number is 396 sessions of this water inspections. And one session, the last session that they did, they have seven public hearings from the top of the river to the downstream. And we hear and the amazing thing is we do not know that in Mekong River Commission. We never do that. This is an eye opening experience. So just to give you that you have done a lot in your history, in your experience. We would like to tap into these experience and expertise. Any software skills, very interesting. If i could perhaps add about the Potomac River. Weve also undergone an extensive evolution since 1940. Some of that experience may be instructive to others as well. Back in the day, as many of you know, many water resource issues were basically considered engineering problems. Build a dam, dig a ditch, build a levy. We have over the years come away from that, obviously. Were very much now in a world of integrated Water Resource Management where we try to bring together all the various aspects of the environment and deal with them in an integrated fashion. And that means including, for instance, natural infrastructure. The role of forest and wetlands in regulating water flow or cleaning water and so on. And we at the icprb, the interstate commission on the Potomac River basin, have recently recast our strategy river plan to reflect that more explicitly. I encourage you, if you have a chance, to go to our website, potomacriver. Org, and look at that. Likewise, were now in the process of starting stakeholder consultations in order to develop a basinwide Water Resources plan for the entire basin involving all state coalitions. That will be a twoyear process. So its been bringing people together, not just focusing on the engineering, but those things are obviously important, but really trying to integrate all of that to find the best solutions, i just wanted to add that to the discussion. Thank you. Aaron, can i also raise an issue . Again, a bit of a followup to jane somers questions she raised, but also i wanted to say to eugene, you get the prize for probably the most provocative statement ever made about hydropower on any of the panels that we at the Stimson Center have organized on the subject. Thats not meant as an unintended yes. One point you made that is relevant to what jerry was talking about, when i heard all the things you say its doing, i didnt hear any priorities either. I didnt hear any kind of strategic approach. So and i dont want to make a big point about that, but rather, use both those comments to raise another issue that aaron would be very familiar with, but also, if you recall, on both of our regional representatives here, and that is theres been these days the debate is not so polarized maybe as it was in the past, partly because of the reality that some of these dams are being built. But in fact there are rising, there are rising questions about even the feasibility, financial feasibility and the political feasibility of the projects and political risk. And also things like the mekong in recent years hasnt got the amount of water in it that was assumed was going to be there for the future in terms of flows, particularly during the dry season. And even chinas dams havent regulated the river in a way thats avoided the Court Reporter avoided the drought and Serious Problems with hydrodams. Theres been a lot of discussion about the socalled nexus, that is, the tradeoffs between water, energy, food security, other values of water. And i wondered if particularly those in the center of the panel would like to comment on where this stands with the nexus, and even as you say as well, where does the nexus stand in terms of either the mrc or the friends of lower mekong, the lower mekong initiative. Theres a lot of talk about these tradeoffs. But theres no mechanism so far to actually get them put them into play. Anyone . Nexus. Maybe just to give my colleagues a few seconds to think, because i usually talk and not think, we do have priorities. And i think when you look at where usaid and the state department have been focusing a lot of the attention around building capacity to improve the sustainability of infrastructure investments, to improve integrated planning and the information for integrated planning and development and decisionmaking. But remember, a lot of our investments are done on a bilateral basis, not necessarily regional. So, you know, we still have to do just to all the bilateral programming thats addressing some of the basic needs which go from access to Drinking Water and sanitation to improving agriculture. There are all sorts of other Development Outcomes in the individual countries. The nexus so part of my role within the mekong is i chair the environment and Water Working Group of the lower mekong initiative. And ive been talking quite a bit about the nexus and the nexus issues. And i know that, you know, what does the nexus actually mean . I know thats a tough issue to address. And i think the way weve tried to view it is, its really about identifying new opportunities for Economic Growth because of the synergies between water, food, and energy. What are the whats the money that were leaving at table by not looking holistically at these three issues collect i feel collectively when were talking about development . The other side of the coin is the risks, and understanding the new risks that are emerging because of the interconnections between water, food, and energy, and are we doing enough to address those kinds of issues. This has become a major theme in our discussions in the lmi. At the state department were working close with our usaid colleagues to put out a request for proposals to look at nexus programs within the mekong region, and our hope is to begin some programming that addresses some of those challenges in the coming months. I know its an area that were trying to advance quite a bit with our colleagues in the region. But jerry, did i do that justice . Thats correct. The only thing i would add on, as i mentioned, we have specific tragedies for a given country. That looks at the Development Challenges in that country but also private donors. It would be a Broad Perspective on what is the role of the u. S. Government in that particular country. For example, youre talking about the nexus. Were focusing much more on food security. Youre looking at the link between food and nutrition. To gene, your point about malnutrition, in the development world, its very important to think about whats required for development in these countries. And oftentimes its Good Nutrition for the first two years of a childs life, and then its good education, and then youve got to have the private sector engaged for creating jobs, you have to have clean water. There are a lot of things that have to be done. I would say there is kind of a prioritization. But its its within a broader context. But let me retwist your question a little bit and propose it to dr. Phan, because we know a lot of the water challenges that the mrc will be looking at is going to be driven by the energy sector. And the Energy Conversations are happening in gms, theyre happening in other fora. What steps are you thinking about, or are you not there yet, but how we bring some of those communities into some of these discussions within the mrc or some of the mrc concerns into other areas . Theres a greater interconnectivity between the decisionmaking processes around energy, around food, and what the mrc is looking to do on water. Well, this is very difficult for me to define. However, we have a fiveyear Strategy Plan, which covers all these hydropower, it covers also the fishery, which is the fruits of security, we talk about securities in cambodia. And the water, we ensure the Water Quality, and how we facilitate my colleague just talked about the sediment, which i think you just said about sediments, it is treated or considered differently than in the mekong river. In the mekong river, sediment is very vital, which helps the vietnamese rice bowl in the mekong delta. In fact even with the suggestion actually from nature and heritage institute, we even suggest to china to do the segment flashing of their dams in order to, how to say, release the 50 of the sediment which is trapped in china. So i would say yes, its covered in our Strategy Plan. So in a way we are working on all these issues doctor to i think its not really, how t