Bridge over Mekong joins Laos and Thailand

Bridge over Mekong joins Laos and Thailand

NONG KHAI, Thailand (Reuter): The first international bridge over the Mekong river opens today between Thailand and Laos, bringing the vision of an Asian super-highway from Singapore to China closer to reality.

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej is cutting the ribbon on the Australian-financed bridge spanning the mighty Mekong, which rises in Tibet in southwest China then snakes some 4,000 kilometers through Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina.

Donor country Australia and the two countries to be joined all see the bridge as a symbol of peace in a region that still feels the aftershocks of colonial conflict, the Vietnam war and continuing internal insurgencies.

Only six years ago Thailand and Laos fought over a disputed hill on the border west of Nong Khai, and Thailand's current economic expansionism is in ironic contrast to its blockade against Laos after communist victories in Indochina in 1975.

Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating is attending the opening ceremony alongside Prime Ministers Khamtay Siphandone of Laos and Chuan Leekpai of Thailand.

The 1,174-meter, five-span bridge, initially carrying two road lanes with space for a rail track later, will pry open landlocked Laos to a transport network extending south to the Gulf of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Built at a cost of A$42 million (US$29.4 million), the Mittaphap (Friendship) Bridge could one day form part of a non- stop route stretching from Singapore to China's Yunan province.

But the realization of such a vision will depend on the speed of infrastructure development in Laos itself, at present a sleepy backwater surrounded by busy neighbors.

According to an Indochinese proverb, "The Vietnamese plant rice, the Cambodians watch them planting and the Lao listen to it growing."

While Thai businessmen see the bridge as an exciting opportunity to promote trade with their country cousins, Laos awaits the event with some trepidation, fearing the spread of unwanted traffic problems, prostitution and AIDS.

The two countries could hardly be more different.

Described by travel writers as a Shangri-La among nations, Buddhist Laos officially abides by the communist principles of the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party but is also committed to economic liberalization and a more open foreign policy.

Conflict

The Lao government conducts a low-key operation against anti- communist dissidents, but unlike Myanmar and Cambodia has attracted no international attention for alleged human rights abuses or its internal conflict.

Though the country is among the world's poorest, with a per- capita income just over $200, Western diplomats in the capital Vientiane say the economy is improving since the government reversed disastrous central planning policies in the late 1980s.

Laos sells 30 percent of the electricity it generates to power-hungry Thailand, which is also eying its neighbor's mineral and timber deposits and is keen to help expand tourism to Laos' unspoiled mountains and valleys.

After opening the bridge, King Bhumibol, accompanied by Queen Sirikit and their daughter Princess Sirindhorn, will travel to Vientiane, the king's first visit outside Thailand since he went to Canada in 1967.

The royal motorcade will have to switch from the left-hand side of the road in Thailand, using ramps at the Laotian end of the bridge, to the right side for the 16-kilometer journey to Vientiane.