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.