Laos, Thailand, Vietnam deal

Laos, Thailand, Vietnam deal

BANGKOK (AFP): Laos, Thailand and Vietnam signed a landmark
transport agreement Friday which aims to slash red tape and boost
economic development, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official
said.

The cross border agreement will reduce customs, immigration
and other barriers to the movement of goods and people through
the three countries, said ADB official Toru Tatara.

The agreement is part of a proposed 350-million-dollar
transport corridor which will join Mukdahan in northeast Thailand
to Savannakhet across the border in southern Laos and Da Nang
port on the central Vietnam coast.

"This is what you could call the 'software' of the transport
corridor, not the hardware, which is roads and so on and it
really is a milestone agreement," Tatara told AFP from the
signing ceremony in the Lao capital Vientiane.