Nations around one of the world’s great rivers, the Mekong, are tightening transport and other links, but have neglected the region’s very heart — the river itself, a Cambodian minister said yesterday.
At a meeting of the six countries surrounding the Mekong, Cambodian Senior Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said the potential of the 4,800km river has been neglected as the region develops road links and “economic corridors,” which he likened to arteries.
“But we forget the heart and the Mekong River is the heart. We need to develop the heart first,” he told reporters after making his suggestion to a conference of fellow ministers.
He was speaking at the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) conference. GMS is an Asian Development Bank-supported program that began 18 years ago to promote development through closer economic links. Along with Cambodia it includes Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as China’s Yunnan Province and the Chinese Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Cham Prasidh said the Mekong should be developed for river transport to enable trade, while the livelihoods of people living along it should be enhanced.
He also proposed that agriculture around the river be developed in accordance with an ecosystem that is changing because of global warming.
“Actually ... the transportation of all the goods through the Mekong River should be the cheapest way of transport” once it is cleared of rocks and obstacles, he said. “By so doing we also open the door for Laos, from being a landlocked country to open it to the sea.”
No other ministers mentioned the Mekong in their opening remarks, except for Thailand’s lead delegate, who mentioned a need for “better management” of the river.
Delegates were expected later yesterday to endorse a plan for connecting regional rail lines, which Cham Prasidh said would be another cheap way of transporting goods to the Mekong nations and beyond, to other members of ASEAN.
The plan cites four possible ways of connecting the railways, but it says the most viable route would stretch from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, then Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and finally up to Nanning and Kunming, largely using existing lines or those already under construction.
The only missing link on that route would be between Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh, it says, estimating a cost of US$1.09 billion for completion.
This does not include roughly US$7 billion in additional funding needed to upgrade the existing lines. By 2025, an estimated 3.2 million passengers and 23 million tonnes of freight are forecast for the completed route, the document says.
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