What makes this sub regional grouping interesting is the fact that this cooperation of former socialist economies and capitalist economy in an area notoriously that the three known for the wars and conflicts in the past. It is also interesting to no members of this group, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar, were previously classified by the UN Systems as the least-developed countries' reflecting their relatively poor state of economic development. Other members namely Vietnam and the Yunnan Province of China, until recently, did not fare much better either. Vietnam embroiled in various wars for more than three decades with little time for proper economic development.
The Yunnan Province of China which is located inland in the Southwestern corner of China away from the economically prosperous coastal areas, benefits little from the opening up of the country to economic reforms, and, like Lao access o the s Thailand he capitalist state in the sub region with a proven record of good economic development, but its approach to economic development may be entirely different from other countries in the sub region.