On July 11, the Second TransHimalaya Development Forum (THDF) kicked off in Mangshi, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autono-mous Prefecture in west Yunnan. The event was attended by more than 40 officials, experts and scholars, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

In the context of the Belt and Road initiative, China is becoming an important player fostering regional cooperation. An Qi, a researcher with the Policy Research Centre for Environment and Economy (PRCEE) of the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, believes that China, after 30 years of reform and opening up, is now capable of providing production capacity and promoting international production capacity coopera-tion. She said that China should avoid the high-energy-consumption, high-pollution and low-efficiency model of development, and domestic capitals and enterprises should lay more emphasis on social responsibility in their “going out”.

Faced with the strong energy demand of Himalayan countries, attending experts expressed their expectations for sustainable energy cooperation, which they believe is as important as facilities connectivity re-garding regional cooperation. Asoka Abey-gunawardana, Advisor to the President of  Sri Lanka, introduced the energy coopera-tion situation in his country: Sri Lanka, in a bid to deal with energy shortages, has car-ried out a number of energy projects with the support of China and India. At the same time, Sri Lanka hopes that these energy cooperations will adhere to the principle of sustainable development.

Currently, with the BCIM Economic Corridor, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Mekong-Ganga Coopera-tion and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation in the region, the integration and competition of various regional co-operation mechanisms is an unavoidable topic. Ren Jia, president of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sec-toral Technical and Economic Coopera-tion and the BCIM Economic Corridor share the same purpose and direction and cover the same areas. Therefore, the two mechanisms should enhance organisation and project cooperation. 

Amidst many difficulties, the most effec-tive approach is to act. Lan Jianxue, a research assistant with the China Institute of Interna-tional Studies, found it necessary to create an action-oriented culture, saying, “Actually, we do not lack initiatives, planning or strat-egies, but what we need most is to promote them in spite of difficulties.”