HANOI, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- Six Asian countries whose citizens depend heavily on the Mekong River have approved a railway system plan connecting the states which would facilitate cross-border transport and trade once the project is completed, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.
Ministers from the six countries -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam -- on Friday approved the plan during their meeting in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
Currently, only China and Vietnam have railway lines that connect with each other, and landlocked Laos has no rail network at all.
Ministers at the Greater Mekong Sub-region meeting finally agreed on the plan which was first promoted 18 years ago, designed to develop closer economic links among the six nations.
After adopting the plan, the ministers gave their green light for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to conduct a study on transportation strategy, especially focused on the rail network to link their countries to create maximum benefit, according to Satit Wongnongtaey, Thailand's minister attached to the Prime Minister's Office, who attended the meeting.
Senior officials from over 10 countries supporting the project also attended the meeting.
Satit said before the project was approved Thailand gave its full support to the programme which would require investment of more than 4.208 billion baht.
Thailand, he said, planned to propose setting up a small- and medium-enterprise (SME) fund at the sub-regional level aimed at stimulating investment by private investors of the six nations as well as speeding an agreement on border passage for their peoples and trade, now pending approval in the Thai parliament.
The railway system plan which would connect over 300 million people of the six countries cited four possible ways of connecting the railways.
However, it says the most viable routes would stretch from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, then to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and finally up to Nanning and Kunming in China. The railways will largely use existing lines or those already under construction.
International news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted ADB vice president Lawrence Greenwood as saying the routes could open by 2020.
ADB says that by 2025 an estimated 3.2 million passengers and 23 million tonnes of freight are projected for the completed route.
-- BERNAMA
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