GOVERNMENT officials joined representatives of the Mekong River Commission yesterday at a ceremony to launch a permanent office of the MRC in Phnom Penh. Khy Lim, communications officer for the MRC, said the organisation had decided to set up a permanent office in the Kingdom to save the expenses involved in rotating between Cambodia and Laos, as it had done previously. The MRC comprises Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In April, observers China and Myanmar joined the MRC countries at a summit in Thailand to discuss management of the river and the effect of Chinese-built dams on the upper Mekong.