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.