ASEAN states ask or funds to shape Mekong region

ASEAN states ask or funds to shape Mekong region

BANGKOK (AFP): ASEAN's comparatively poor new members are
clamoring for a piece of the region's economic action and called
Tuesday for funds to accelerate the Mekong Basin development.

Foreign ministers from Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,
Vietnam have warned at the grouping's annual meeting here that
ASEAN will not progress unless it bridges the economic gaps among
its 10 members.

The five Southeast Asian nations share the Mekong river with
China's Yunan province. The region covers a total land area of
2.3 million square kilometers, with a combined population of
nearly 240 million people.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said the development of the
Mekong Basin has been hampered by the 1997 regional economic
debacle but he urged the grouping to renew efforts to seek
financing to open it up.

"We need funds to implement the project," he told AFP.

"We need to talk to Japan and other donor countries like the
EU. We have agreed that something should be done. It is very
important to close the gap with the less-developed countries
within ASEAN."

A senior ASEAN official said Vietnam which became a member in
1995, Cambodia and Laos in 1997 and Myanmar last year, were
growing impatient with the slow pace of development in the Mekong
area.

"They feel that they have been given big promises when they
joined ASEAN but little is being done," the official said.

An ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation (AMBDC)
committee was set up in 1996, but became dormant when the
economic crisis struck.

Pradap Pibulsonggram, ASEAN director-general in Thailand's
foreign ministry, said the AMBDC had been reactivated and had
held its second meeting in Hanoi last month.

"There is now renewed determination among ASEAN members to
speed up development in the area. We have a better chance to move
it forward now that the region has rebounded," he told AFP .

The committee is expected to gather again in Bangkok in
October next year to revive talks on a proposal to construct a
railway line from Singapore to Kunming, he said.

There are also plans to invite representatives from China,
Japan and Korea to attend the meeting as part of efforts to build
up interest and attract more funds, he added.

Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai on Monday said the
development of the Mekong sub-region was vital to ASEAN's growth.

"There is a compelling need to expedite infrastructure
development and the capacity-building program so as to ensure the
region's economic integration," Chuan told the ASEAN foreign
ministers.

"Only by closing the gap between old and new members will
ASEAN be able to move ahead with the speed and direction expected
of it."

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong called Monday for a
Mekong Basin Development Fund to be set up and said the project
needed support from ASEAN's dialogue partners, particularly
Japan.

He also urged the grouping to allocate funds to conduct
feasibility studies on possible projects in the area.

"The process of regional integration will not succeed unless
there is a balance of development within ASEAN ... It is
essential to set up strategies and programs to eliminate or
substantially reduce such a disparity within ASEAN as soon as
possible," he said.

He was backed by his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Dy Nien,
who sought a "higher priority" in ASEAN for projects in the
Mekong area.

"ASEAN could hardly become a powerful economic entity if the
development gap among its member countries keeps widening,"
Nguyen warned.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says the Mekong region has
vast potential in terms of natural resources and a large labor
pool, but cites environment, income gap, infrastructure
development and human resources as key obstacles to growth.

It projects gross domestic product in the Mekong to surge to
US$863 billion in 2010, up from $238 billion in 1996.

The ADB, which formed an economic cooperation body in 1992 to
promote growth in the area, estimates nearly $10 billion is
needed to develop its transport and energy sectors alone.