pont laos thailande

Pont Laos Thailande

New Mekong bridge to be completed by 2005

.c Kyodo News Service 


MUKDAHAN, Thailand, Nov. 21 (Kyodo) - A Japanese-financed bridge being built across the Mekong River between Laos and Thailand will be completed in 2005 following delays stemming from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, a Thai Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday. 

Pradap Pibulsonggram, director general of the ministry's Economic Affairs Department, urged local businessmen and officials to make the most of trade opportunities brought by the bridge linking the northeastern Thai province of Mukdahan and Savannakhet Province in Laos. 

On Thursday, Parliamentary Foreign Secretary Taimei Yamaguchi will represent Japan in a four-way minister-level meeting in Mukdahan Province. 

In the meeting, Thailand will be represented by Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai, Vietnam by Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien, and Laos by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad. 

Following the meeting they will tour the bridge and later visit Savannakhet Province and the Vietnamese coastal city of Danang. 

The 1,600-meter bridge is aimed at boosting economic activities between Thailand and Laos and to connect with a land route to central Vietnam that will ease the flow of goods and passengers in the area. Laos also plans to develop Savannakhet as a special economic zone, providing incentives for trade and investment. 

As part of the project, Laos and Vietnam will renovate Route No. 9 leading from the bridge site to Danang port. Laos plans to complete its part of the renovation in 2003 and Vietnam doing so the following year. 

The bridge is also expected to facilitate tourism in the area as the number of tourist arrivals grew significantly from 9.4 million in 1995 to 14 million last year in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. 

The bridge, to cost 3.2 billion baht (about $72.2 million), is financed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The bank has already signed an agreement with Laos and is expected to sign one with Thailand in the near future in which the two countries each borrowed half of the construction cost. 

The bridge, however, is expected to get a final contractor before the end of next year in which the construction will start and take three years to complete, a senior Thai official said. 

The project is part of an ''East-West Corridor'' sponsored by the Asian Development Bank and aimed at boosting trade and tourism in the Mekong basin. 

In 1994, Thailand and Laos opened an Australian-funded bridge over the Mekong known as the Friendship Bridge. It links Thailand's northeastern Nongkhai Province and the Lao capital Vientiane. 

AP-NY-11-21-01 0540EST

Copyright 2001 The Kyodo News Service