Myanmar urged to join trans-Asian rail system
Myanmar urged to join trans-Asian rail system
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
urged Myanmar yesterday to join a proposed trans-Asian railway
network that would stretch from Singapore to China.
Mahathir also reiterated to visiting Myanmarese Deputy Premier
Maung Maung Khin that he hoped Myanmar could be admitted into the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as soon as
possible, the Bernama news agency said.
A Malaysian foreign ministry official said Mahathir told the
vice-admiral, a member of the Myanmarese junta who attended an
ASEAN investment forum here, that Myanmar should prepare a rail
link to Thailand as part of the trans-Asian system.
The railway is a brainchild of Mahathir and is aimed at
further integrating the economies of the backward but resource-
rich Mekong basin region. It is envisioned over the long term to
be linked to China, and eventually to Europe.
According to Malaysian officials, one possible configuration
of the trans-Asian rail system would pass through northern
Myanmar from Thailand, and then turn east towards Kunming in
southern China.
During the courtesy call by the Burmeese junta leader,
Mahathir also requested Myanmar to provide more incentives to
attract foreign investors, and said Malaysian business could play
an important role in rebuilding Myanmar's economy.
Maung Maung Khin assured Mahathir that the political situation
in his country was improving and that he hoped more Malaysian
investors would venture into Myanmar.
On bilateral matters, Mahathir urged Myanmar to repatriate
some 8,000 Myanmarese nationals currently detained by Malaysia as
part of a drive against illegal foreign workers.
The Myanmarese government declined to take them back, saying
the workers had no official documents and were thus stateless,
but Mahathir urged Yangon to acknowledge that they are Myanmarese
nationals and ship them back home.
Myanmar is expected to be inducted together with Laos and
Cambodia into ASEAN as early as July, when the group holds a
foreign ministers' meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
ASEAN now groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.